Lot 181 — Owl Trade Card, “How Owl’d Are You?”
Lot 181 — Owl Trade Card, “How Owl’d Are You?” - Image 2
Lot 181 — Owl Trade Card, “How Owl’d Are You?” - Image 3

Lot 181 — Owl Trade Card, “How Owl’d Are You?”

Victorian advertising trade card for Hardie & Stoker’s groceries and crockery: a one-eyed glare from a big owl to a small one.

Artist
Unknown artist (stock lithograph)
Dimensions
Approx. 3 × 4.5 in (trade-card size, not measured)
Materials
Chromolithograph on card stock

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SKU: WW-181 Category:

Description

A chromolithographed advertising trade card. A big brown owl on a bare branch turns one enormous yellow eye on a small, scowling owl perched further along, under a gold crescent moon on a slate-blue sky. Across the top: “How Owl’d Are You?” and the sales line “Owl of Ye go to Hardie & Stoker’s for Groceries & Crockery.” A small printer’s stock number sits in the lower left corner.

Owl puns were a stock design of the period: printers sold the same picture to any shop that wanted it and overprinted the shop’s own name. This one has a punch hole at lower left and soft, rubbed edges. One of three Hardie & Stoker’s owl cards in the hold, each sold on its own, and the sort of thing that once rode home from the grocer in a paper sack along the Erie Canal.

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