Advertising and Ephemera

Printed advertising is the paper and tin that carried the names of goods into every home. A coffee tin, a counter sign, a trade card or a postcard was made to be thrown away, and the fact that so much survived is what makes the field so rich for collectors. This guide sets out the families of advertising and ephemera, the clues that date them, and the way to store them so that they last.

What counts as advertising and ephemera

The field covers anything printed or made to promote a product or a business. Tins that held coffee, tea, tobacco or talc. Signs of tin, cardboard or glass. Counter displays, trays, calendars and fans. Trade cards, handbills, catalogues and price lists. Postcards, both the advertising kind and the general kind that carried a message on one side and a picture on the other. The line between advertising and ephemera is soft, and collectors often treat them as one field because they share the same paper, the same printing methods and the same fragility.

What unites them is intent. Each was made to sell something, and each was expected to be discarded. That is why condition matters so much here. A tin that survived in a dry cellar is a different object from one that spent fifty years in a damp barn, and the difference in value can be large.

Tins, boxes and containers

Tins are the solid heart of the field. They were made to hold food, tobacco, medicine and household goods, and their decoration followed the printing methods of their day. Early tins carry lithographed images of high quality, printed in several colours and often signed by the firm that made them. Later tins carry simpler printing, and modern reproductions carry printing that is too clean, too bright and too uniform.

The shape and the construction of a tin date it as much as its picture. Early tins were often assembled by hand from separate pieces and soldered at the seams, and their lids fit with a slight looseness that comes from hand work. Later tins were stamped and rolled in one piece, with regular seams and a tighter fit. The collector should look at the seams and the inside of the tin as well as the picture on the front, because the construction is harder to fake than the image.

Signs and displays

Signs were made in tin, cardboard, glass and wood, and they range from small counter pieces to large wall panels. The best of them were lithographed on tin and have a depth of colour that later printing cannot match. Signs also carried practical clues: a maker's mark on the back, a hanging hole, a fold for a counter edge, or a wooden frame made to fit a particular wall.

Displays and stands are the most vulnerable part of the field because they were handled daily and often broken. A counter display that still holds its original goods, or a stand that still carries its original sign, is rarer than the tin it advertised. When buying a display, check that the parts belong together, since displays were often repaired by combining the remains of two or three. The wear on a display should match across all its parts, and the colours should age at the same rate.

Paper, cards and postcards

Paper is where the field becomes delicate. Trade cards, handbills, catalogues, calendars and postcards were printed on paper that was never meant to last, and they fade, fox, tear and curl with age. Postcards are the most collected of the paper family because they were printed in enormous numbers and because they carry a date and often a message. A postcard with a clear postmark is one of the easiest objects in the whole field to date.

Paper also carries the clearest evidence of a reproduction. Old paper has a texture, a smell and a colour that come with time, and its printing has a slight softness at the edges. New paper reproduced from an old image has a flatness and a brightness that the eye learns to spot. For the collector, the habit that pays is to look at the paper itself, the edges, the back and the marks of age, before looking at the picture.

Dating by printing and by brand

Printing methods date advertising more reliably than almost anything else. Early lithography, with its stone drawn images and its rich colour, belongs to the nineteenth century. Later methods, including the various forms of offset printing, belong to the twentieth. The way colours sit on the surface, the fineness of the lines and the presence of a printing signature all point to a period.

Brands and slogans date advertising too, and often more precisely. A slogan that was used for only a few years, a product that was renamed, or a firm that changed hands all set a window around an object. The collector who builds a small file of brand histories will date their finds far more easily than one who relies on the look of a tin alone. The page on advertising tins and trade signs goes through the dating signals in detail and explains how to spot a reproduction before you pay for one.

Storing paper and tin

Advertising and ephemera need the same care as any collection: a stable, dry, dark place, and materials that do not harm the object. Paper should be stored flat in acid free folders and boxes, away from light, heat and damp. Tin should be kept dry and free of contact with other metals that might rust against it, and should never be cleaned with abrasives, which remove the very surface that carries the age. Rust on a tin can be slowed by keeping the air dry, but it cannot be reversed without damage, so prevention is the whole of the cure.

Displays should be stored assembled where possible, so that their parts do not become separated. Photograph each object with its marks and its construction before storing it, so that the record survives even if the object is later sold. The advertising and ephemera guide sits alongside the rest of this magazine, and the page on tins and signs is the natural next read.

The Antique Advertising Association of America is a reference point for the field and publishes material for collectors: antiqueadvertising.com.