Three Trade Cards: Secular Ages of Women.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins Stetson. The Three Secular Ages of Woman. [Providence, RI: Westland Safety Lamp Co., ca. 1880-84.]
3 cards, 4 ½ x 3 inches; each with a chromolithographed image of a woman on the recto with an advertisement for the Westland Safety Lamp Company on the verso of two of the three; those two are faintly stamped on the recto, “Westland Safety Lamp Company.” In a specially made cloth slipcase.
A set of three fancifully drawn trade cards depicting young females with flowers blooming around their heads; each is labeled on the verso in pencil with identification of the flower employed.
In 1880, at the age of twenty, Gilman and her cousin Robert Brown designed trade cards for at least four soap companies. Her original sketches are preserved among her papers and at least thirty cards have been attributed to her. Amongst this work is a collection of six depicting the three religious and secular ages of woman. The three cards offered here depict the three secular ages of woman. The first card shows a girl in a long nightgown holding a doll with her head inside a petunia blossom. The second shows a young maid carrying a milk bucket, holding some flowers, her head inside a buttercup blossom (verso blank). The third shows a young woman in a fancy gown holding a bunch of leaves like a fan with her head inside a rose blossom.
(#5650)
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