Birthday Greetings from Four Lactated Food Babies

Burlington, VT: Wells & Richardson Co., 1885. Very good. Large advertising card, n. d. (ca 1885); 7 1/2 x 5 1/2; chromolithographed illustration and subtitles to recto, text to verso; slight diagonal crease to left half; a few small rubbed spots to verso (most probably removed from a scrap book); small round punch-hole to top margin (for hanging [?]); overall in very good condition.A beautiful advertisement for baby food, the card featured the portraits of four babies, identified with their names, their parents' names, and places of birth and letters from the mothers, expressing their gratitude for Lactated Food's saving the lives of the infants, who had been uninterested in any other kind of food. Based on lactose, it was "hailed by the medical profession as the best of its kind with which they were acquainted." It was also said to be the standard in asylums and hospitals, for invalids, convalescents, and mentally ill. The company was very succesful, with branches in England and other European countries.