Willimantic Spool Cotton Thread Salesman Business Card and Card Holder

Willimantic, CT: Willimantic Spool Cotton Company, 1866. Very good. Card holder with a single business card, (ca 1866); holder - 2 x 3 1/2; two card stock sheets hinged with a textured strip of cloth; lithographed and decorated in red, black, and gilt; salesman's name in manuscript penciled to verso; small loss of cloth to upper right corner and a small spot to back panel; in very good condition; business card - salmon-colored stock with the name of the agent in ornate font; faint finger smudge to verso - in very good or better condition.A lavishly-appointed business card and holder of an exclusive sales agent, it represented the Willimantic Spool Cotton Company (originally Willimantic Linen Company), which was established in 1854 and would become a leading US thread manufacturer in the second half 19th century. Before the company's founding, thread available on small spools was generally black or white, with color thread sold only in bulk skeins. The Willimantic Company would pioneer spooled cotton thread in a wide variety of colors right from the beginning of their thread production.