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Kerr Spool Cotton, 1880

 File — Box: CFC Trade Cards Box 1
Identifier: CFC2018.0396

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Carlson Fable Collection is a gathering of primary fable materials at Reinert Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University. It grew out of the personal collection of fable materials gathered by Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J. and was given to the Creighton Libraries in 1996. There are more than 10,000 books and approximately 8,000 artifacts in the collection.

From plates to stamps, from cards to whiskey decanters, from toys to posters, you'll find just about anything you can imagine here. Please explore all that is to offer here in my fables Catalogue of Objects.

This is the largest online catalog of fable related objects on the internet. Many are from Aesop's Fables but you will find La Fontaine, Velazquez and Krylov also represented in this collection.

Dates

  • 1880

Extent

12 Cards : Aesop's Fables. Seven unnumbered 5" x 3¼" cards, including one extra, from a larger set with colored illustrations. NY: Kerr & Co. Extra Six-Cord Spool Cotton Manufacturers. ; 5" x 3¼"

Language of Materials

French

Abstract

Very nice stiff cards with the full text of the fable--and lots of advertising--on the back. The special character of these cards lies in the way the artist integrates advertisement and fable. Thus the crane stands on a spool of Kerr thread to remove a spool of Kerr thread from the wolf's mouth. The "well" into which the goat looks down on the fox is the core of a column of Kerr thread-spools. In FK, the torso of each frog is a spool of thread! In FS, the stork dips his bill down not into a vase but into the core of three stacked spools of thread. In OF's marsh, the two frogs perch on spools as though they were innertubes or life-savers. The body of the iron pot is made up of two spools in 2P; the handle with a face--and a spool cap--can be hard to read. The cards are generally bright and clean, though the extra Norris copy of WC is slightly worn and soiled. Several cards are stamped on the picture side by retail dealers, all curiously from either Massachusetts or New Hampshire.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

$16 (WC) and $12.50 (Fox and Goat) from John Davan through Ebay, Feb., '99 and $15 (WC) from Chuck Norris through Ebay, March, '99. FS for $21.75 from Carolyn Dias, Hanson, MA, Jan., '00, and OF for $22.60 from her in Jan., '01. FK for $32.50 from Linda Winkens at Relics, Sturgis, MI, through Ebay, Feb., '00. 2P for $13.52 from Linda Chromik, North East, PA, through Ebay, Dec., '00. Extra copies of WC, 2P, OF, and FS for $11.53 from Kathy Elliott, Ruskin, FL, through eBay, March, '08.

Source

Repository Details

Part of the Creighton University Libraries, Archives & Special Collections Repository

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