Men and ConsumptionEarly Modern Trade Cards in Focus

Essay written by Angelos Kastritis

Uppsala UniversitetHistoriska InstitutionenConsumption and Material Culture in Early Modern EuropeDr Gudrun AnderssonJanuary 2014

Contents• Introduction___________________________________________________2• Trade Cards: Origins and Purpose__________________________________2• Trade Cards and Male Consumption________________________________3• Conclusion____________________________________________________6• Bibliography___________________________________________________7• Appendix______________________________________________________8

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IntroductionIn this study regarding manifestation messages, i will focus on english and french

trade cards as a means of advertising and promoting goods sold in shops in these twocountries. The cards which I will analyze, come from two large collections of printedephemera, the Johnson Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the WaddesdonCollection of cards collected by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. Through selectedparadigms of trade cards, I will try to show how the concept of masculinity played it's roleon producing and projecting consumption messages and how trade cards deployed visualeffects to attract and challenge potential customers, in this case, men. In the end i hope thereader will have an overall view on how trade cards were a crucial part of the commercialculture in Early Modern Europe.

Trade Cards: Origins and PurposeTrade cards first appeared in Europe in the 17th century and evolved the next two

centuries, reaching peak between 1730 and 1770. The earliest trade cards were madefrom good quality paper while later, wood-cuts were replaced by engravings, whichproduced better lines and therefore greater details. By the 18 th and 19th centuriesletterpress and engraved trade cards co-existed but copper-plate and steel engravingsdominated. 1 Trade cards, as well as bill headings, as primary source materials, are verysignificant to historians. They give us a nostalgic view of how commercial streets were inprevious centuries, with shops decorated with colourful signs and a plethora of importedgoods available. It is also possible for historians to find illustrations of buildings nowdemolished, or give a sense of how it was to enter a shop of this period. Trade cards werethe best way for a shopkeeper to promote his shop and sell goods. The messages eachtradesman wanted to share about him and his shop, were effectively represented textuallyand visually by trade cards.2 After shop signs disappeared, they were replaced by streetnumbers and trade cards, which reproduced the sign of the business, as we will see innumerous cards. The purpose of the trade cards was through their unique or originaldesign or attractiveness, to prolong the name of the shop and encourage the customer tocome back. The depiction of goods in text and image, works as a reminder of the objectspurchased and stresses where they had been bought.3

According to Jon Stobart advertisements were structured by norms and language of1 Maxine Berg & Helen Clifford, “Selling consumption in the eighteenth century. Advertising and the trade card in Britain and France”, in Cultural and Social History 4:2, (Bloomsbury Journals, 2007), p.145–170, at 147.2 About trade ephemera as a resource, http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/exhibition/ accessed 30/12/2013.3 Katie Scott, “Archives and Collections. The Waddesdon Manor Trade Cards: More Than One History”, in Journal of Design History 17:1, (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 91–104, at 94. See also Berg & Clifford, at 151.

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politeness to promote shops and commodities. Through trade cards the shopkeeper couldcommunicate complex messages and reproduce ideas of politeness to a wider public. Theelegant illustrations accompanying the words, were meant to be read by those to whomthey were given. An educated group able to interpret the imagery of printed culture.Advertisements were selling goods through politeness while at the same time, revealing“polite” ideals to bourgeoisie.4 As Amanda Vickery states, polite status was a set of mentaland material norms used to express and stress the taste of the individual. Gentlemen andgentlewomen in order to maintain their rank and distinguish their polite status, shouldconsume and construct a material culture appropriately. 5

But which is men's role in that? It is true that in the Western world, whenconsumption comes to our mind it is obsessively gendered, mostly as female. This is notstrange as the whole consumption mechanisms are mainly focused on women's needs.What can we say about the relationship of men, males and masculinity to the world ofgoods?6 While women's consumption is more visible and often, men's consuming habitsescaped notice. But as Amanda Vickery argues, men were as acquisitive as women thoughtheir interests confined to more luxury or hobby goods. In the period we focus, there weremany retailers who targeted male consumers as the desirous individual. Wigmakers,tailors, barbers, watch makers, tobacconists, wine merchants, stationers, coach makers,saddlers were some among many retailers profited by men's personal needs. Among these,gentlemen had a special relationship and trust with their tailor. From researches made, agood tailor's shop could be a “homosocial sanctum”, a place where woman interventionwas discouraged, where a confidential relationship between male consumer and malesupplier was built. In that way male consumer's dignity was protected and masculinematerialism maintained in a lower level.7

Trade Cards and Male consumptionThe first trade card I will focus (see Appendix, pic.1), is of Guégou, Tailor, A La

Cornemuse (At the Musical Horn), dated 1800-1820. The image produced in Paris, isetched and the text is engraved. The design consists of an architectural block bearing thetext, surmounted by a cornice decorated with chevrons, representing the shop sign. Twolarge bearded satyr masks support the cornice. The satyrs have horns and laurel wreaths.

4 Jon Stobart, “Selling (Through) Politeness: Advertising Provincial Shops in Eighteenth-century England”, in Culturaland Social History, 5: 3 (Bloomsbury Journals, 2008), p. 309-328, at 309, 316.5 Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England, (New Haven, CT, 1998), at 202.6 Victoria de Grazia & Ellen Furlough, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, (Berkeley 1996), at 1.7 Amanda Vickery, “His and Hers: Gender, Consumption and Household Accounting in Eighteenth-Century England”, in Past and Present, Supplement 1, (2006) p. 12-38, at 15, 32, 37.

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Ribbons are hang from the horns. A pair of scissors, tools of Guégou's trade, is tied to theribbon on the left while a musical horn, the shop sign, hangs from the ribbon on the right.Bushes appear to either side of the block. In the center of the block the main text appears(translated): Guégou, tailor. No. 28 rue Saint-Denis or Rue des filles Dieu, the second alleyon the right on the 2nd floor. Though the picture is not a characteristic paradigm, we canassume that this card was made for male customers to be given. The design is firm, “heavy”and “manly” with no special ornamentation like other trade cards intended for women.Also the fact that the plain text refers only to the address and destination, may mean thatGuégou is well known to his male customers with no need to convey any special messages,meaning that intimacy, trust and professionalism are already gained. A connection totradition and years of experience may be made with the satyrs referring to a gloriousgreco-roman past.

One of the most profound objects of male consumption desires, was the coach. Therunning of this vehicle and what follows, coachmen, horses, stables, feed, was so expensiveeven for this period. Gentlemen visited coach makers and saddlers so often and spentmany hours in these shops to search and buy horse equipment. This fetishism wascompletely masculine and men having a great variety of buckles, leather and chains werenever criticized by the public, for this kind of male consumption was connected totransportation.8 The next image (Appendix, pic.2) is S. Goodbody & Co.’s card dated 1802-1823, coach smith and spring maker, engraved by William Newman. In the center of thecard lies the text: S. Goodbody & Co., Coach smiths and Spring makers, 16, HorseferryRoad, Westminster. The whole card is filled with an imaginative and decorativearrangement of coach springs, horse's tackles, norzels, sirsingles, rowlers and cruppers, allabout horse and coach equipment. Again the card is simple pointing directly to horse andcoaches enthusiasts, obviously men. At the end of 18 th century products began to appearon trade cards replacing the trade signs, as an easier way to depict what was sold in theshop.

Collecting was another form characterizing male consumption. Through consumeractivities bourgeois men intended to make themselves individuated. Collecting at this timewas a practice mostly conceptualized as masculine, highlighting the adventurous malepsychism, compared to hunt, conquest, investing and knowledge. Nature's specimens,paintings, objects of art were to be found in exclusive shops, antique stores or fleamarkets.9 Dandies, appeared in England and France at the late 18 th to the early 19th

8 Vickery, at 33-34.9 Leora Auslander, “The Gendering of Consumer Practices in Nineteenth-Century France”, in The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, (Berkeley 1996), at 85-86.

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centuries, were also collectors, admirers of art, engaged to self-adornment andcommodified themselves as objects for the consumption of others. For this purpose dandiesspent all of their time and money on expensive and eccentric clothing, jewelery,furnishing, carriages etc.10

The next trade card (Appendix, pic.3), dated 1778-1784, is of Vaugeois, Merchantof Games, Snuffboxes etc, Au Singe Vert (At the Green Monkey). The image along with thetext is engraved. The design consists of a plaque bearing the text which inform thecustomer in great detail about the goods offered in the shop. Snuff and tobacco boxes of allkinds, metals and exotic places, hooks, bows and arrows, chains, gem stones and of coursegames are among a plethora of objects.11 On top of the block inside a roundel surroundedby laurel, is a picture of a monkey holding a dice cup in front of a backgammon board. Allkinds of goods appear to the left and right of the roundel, some supported on ribbonshanging form eyelets. According to Lord Chesterfield in his letters to his son: “a fool cannotwithstand the charms of a toy-shop.....snuff boxes, watches, heads of canes, etc are hisdestruction.12 Chesterfield was the author of the most widely read guide to behavior, tasteand social savoir faire. If any gentleman read his book, believing to possess a significantsocial status, then we easily assume that these shops, filled with men's ornaments, fulfilledexceedingly their consumer's needs for collecting.13

Another card aiming exclusively to male consumers, is of L. Sissingh, tobacconist,Het Zwart Anker (At the Black Anchor) in Rotterdam (Appendix, pic.4), dated 1800-1820.The design consists of a monument supporting a drapery bearing the text (VarinasTobacco. Snuff. At the Black Anchor. This and more various sorts of tobacco and cigars aswell as all sorts of Reuk snuff, can be had at L. Sissingh's, on the Hoogstraat near theEastern Gate 323, Rotterdam. No 6). On top of the block, there is an anchor, therepresentation of the shop sign. To either side of the pedestal, allegorical figures aredepicted. On the left, there is Hermes, the Greek God of trade, wearing a winged helmet,while on the right, there is a woman bearing a palm, possibly representing Victory. To theleft, right and bottom of the picture there are goods related to tobacco. Tobacco leaves, apipe, boxes of sealed tobacco, all coming from exotic places. The card is unique and usefulto researchers because we have a representation of how tobacco shops were at that timeand also a depiction of the product being processed.14

10 Auslander, at 90-91.11 For a detailed description of the goods, see the image reference to the site.12 Stobart, at 37.13 Woodruff D Smith, Consumption and the Making of Respectability, 1600–1800, (New York 2002), at 227. 14 Due to limited space there are references of trade cards aiming at male consumers for further investigation at the end of Appendix.

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ConclusionAcross the 18th century a consumer revolution occurred (a prerequisite for

industrial revolution), allowing ordinary people for the first time to choose among aplethora of commodities. It is also the first time that consuming practices becomegendered. With the appearance of consumption, a gendered division between a publicmasculinized sphere of political and economic activity and a private feminized sphere ofconsumption occurred.15 The public sphere of Habermas was affected and influenced bythe cultural context of rational masculinity, characterized by certain ideal characteristicsappealing to male gender. Many practices coherent with rational masculinity were boundto commodities consumed and traded within coffeehouses, places strictly masculine andimportant for male interaction in Early modern times.16 I believe crucial to understandingmore about consuming activities, is Veblen's theory of social emulation. Lower classesconsume to emulate their superiors, while superiors consume more to maintain theirprestige and social status.17 Through the acquisition of goods people construct their class,gender and individuality. In that way we may understand the role of trade cards as meansof commercial propaganda. Though consumption is more obvious as a feminine practice,we saw that also men were conceptualized as customers. They were to consume andacquire the objects of their desire: wealth, control, knowledge and mastery. The paradigmsof trade cards chosen, some aiming strictly to men, make us work with our imagination tounderstand how the interaction between the trustful dealer and the male consumerhelped, through dignity and discretion, to maintain the lowered profile of masculinematerialism. In that way the invisible consuming of men becomes more visible andunderstandable for historians to research.

15 Garthine Walker, Writing Early Modern History, (London 2005), at 167-168. 16 Smith, at 234-235.17 Walker, at 168.

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Bibliography• Auslander Leora, “The Gendering of Consumer Practices in Nineteenth-Century

France”, in The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective,(Berkeley 1996).

• Berg Maxine & Clifford Helen, “Selling consumption in the eighteenth century.Advertising and the trade card in Britain and France”, in Cultural and Social History4:2, (Bloomsbury Journals, 2007).

• Grazia Victoria de & Furlough Ellen, The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption inHistorical Perspective, (Berkeley 1996).

• Scott Katie, “Archives and Collections. The Waddesdon Manor Trade Cards: MoreThan One History”, in Journal of Design History 17:1, (Oxford University Press,2004), p. 91–104.

• Smith Woodruff D, Consumption and the Making of Respectability, 1600–1800,(New York, 2002).

• Stobart Jon, “Selling (Through) Politeness: Advertising Provincial Shops inEighteenth-century England”, in Cultural and Social History, 5:3 (BloomsburyJournals, 2008), p. 309-328.

• Vickery Amanda, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England,(New Haven, CT, 1998).

• Vickery Amanda, “His and Hers: Gender, Consumption and Household Accountingin Eighteenth-Century England”, in Past and Present, Supplement 1, (2006) p. 12-38.

• Walker Garthine, Writing Early Modern History, (London 2005).• About trade ephemera as a resource, http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/exhibition/

accessed 30/12/2013

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AppendixPic.1

http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?id=42454&db=object&page=1&view=detail

Pic.2

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/exhibition/

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Pic.3

http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?id=42087&db=object&page=1&view=detail

pic.4

http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?id=42555&db=object&page=1&view=detail

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All images were accessed from 29/12/2013 to 4/1/2014.

Trade card of coffee house:http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/johnson/exhibition/ No. 10

Trade card of Geographer and Map seller:http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?id=41907&db=object&page=1&view=detail

Trade card of collecting art/paintings:http://collection.waddesdon.org.uk/search.do?id=42278&db=object&page=1&view=detail

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