1885 – An attractive advertising trade card for men’s cuffs and collars features a colorful illustration of the owner’s family sitting down to enjoy a turkey at their Thanksgiving dinner was sent through the mail, presumably in late November of that year

Albany, New York, 1885. Card. Very good. This blank back, 5.25” x 3” trade card advertises “Acorn” Collars and Cuffs manufactured by S. L. Munson of Albany, New York. It was sent through the mail to E. R. Birinington of Danielsonville, Connecticut. The card is in nice shape, and it is franked with a 1-cent Franklin stamp canceled by an undated Albany postmark.

The card, on which a November calendar is printed, features a family of six seated around a dining room table with the father, presumably S. L. Munson, addressing his wife and children as he begins carving a large turkey:

“We owe thanks to the trade for an enormously increased business.”

. Congress approved a request from Postmaster General John Creswell to print and issue one-cent postal cards in June of 1872. The law also allowed privately printed postcards, known today as “pioneer” cards, but they were twice as expensive to mail, and typically had imprints like “Correspondence” or “Souvenir Card” printed on the reverse. In this case, the Acorn collar company took double advantage of the post card law; first by using it to send this advertising postcard through the mail and also by slipping it through the post office at half the required rate.

In 1885, the Ace collar and cuff company apparently issued a series of calendar trade cards. We have sold a similar postally used Acorn card celebrating Christmas, and other examples, usually damaged, occasionally pop-up on .