Details
Contributor Armstrong & Co. (Boston, Mass.), printer.
Title Standard java, Chase & Sanborn, Boston [graphic].
Publisher Boston : Armstrong & Co. Lith
Publisher MASS. Boston. 1880
Date [ca. 1880]
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 8 x 12 cm (3 x 4.75 in.)
Description Trimmed metamorphic trade card promoting Chase & Sanborn's coffee. Depicts a quirky, racist scene with a trompe l’oeil aesthetic and including the oversized head of a Black man with exaggerated features in a North African setting. Shows an African man attired in a yellow hooded robe on a white horse and holding a long spoon to an enormous face of an African man. His head covered in a green and red turban has torn through a wall. He purses his lips out to the spoon. In the center of the image is a white coffee cup with a blue stripe and the text "Standard java, Chase and Sanborn, Boston" written in red. In the right foreground, holding a basket, is a barefooted African woman attired in a white dress with red stripes and cap sleeves; a yellow vest; and red, head kerchief. In the background is a building with Moresque decorative features in the doorway and window. Illustrated on the verso is a partial view of a black man. Shows his chin and lower lip, his torso, and his legs above his ankles. His arms are raised, and he is attired in white pants with blue stripes; a green jacket with yellow lining; a white collared shirt; and red vest and bowtie. Caleb Chase (1831-1908) established a coffee and tea company in 1864. Chase partnered with coffee seller James Sanborn (1835-1903) in 1874 to form Chase & Sanborn. It was the first company to pack and ship roasted coffee in sealed tins. In 1893, the firm supplied the coffee to all of the salons at the Chicago World's Fair. Chase & Sanborn was acquired in 1929 by Standard Brands, which merged with Nabisco in 1981.
Notes Title from item.
Date deduced from history of the advertised business.
Advertising text printed on verso: Boston roasted coffees have a national reputation representing the finest grown seal brand java and mocha coffee is justly called the aristocratic coffee of America surpassing all others in its richness and delicacy of flavor always packed whole roasted in 2-lb, air-tight tin cans. Crusade blend coffee is a skillfull blending of three high grade coffees noted for their flavor, strength and aroma, warranted not to contain a single Rio bean, but guaranteed to [?].
Gift of David Doret.
Card is trimmed at the top and bottom.
Subject Chase & Sanborn.
Architectural elements.
Black people -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Coffee cups.
Coffee industry -- Massachusetts -- Boston
Eating & drinking.
Horseback riding.
North Africans -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Racism in popular culture.
Trompe l'oeil prints -- 1870-1880.
Genre Chromolithographs -- 1870-1880.
Trade cards -- 1870-1880.
Printer Armstrong & Co. (Boston, Mass.), printer.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Goldman Trade Card Collection - Chase [P.2017.95.25]
Accession number P.2017.95.25