Friday, January 11, 2013

Victorian trade card for George Boepple, bologna manufacturer


Victorian trade cards were just weird sometimes.
Does anyone have any insight into what's going on here?
Is that a bull or an ox?
What is that girl wearing?
What the heckfire is she doing?
Were children really left alone to do terribly unsafe things like this?

Just curious. This is, you know, not something you see every day.

The back of the card indicates that the card was issued as an advertisement for George Boepple Co., a bologna manufacturer and provision dealer.


A Google search for "'George Boepple' and bologna" nets zilch. Some other searches, however, indicate that this company was located in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Here's a snippet from a Worcester directory published in 1920 that confirms that John Reichert (along with Fritz and Jacob Bauer) was involved in the sausage-making business with George Boepple Co.


But none of this, as is typical with Victorian trade cards, has anything to do with the Theater of the Bizarre going on with this card's illustration.

4 comments:

  1. I've been staring at this for 5 minutes. For once, I am speechless, wit-free, and dumbfounded :)

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  2. Ok. That's got me baffled. Let me think on it.

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  3. Jacob Bauer mentioned above was my grandfather, I remember going to his store in Worcester when I was four years old. That is a strange card for sure!

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    1. Jann, my direct relatives were John Reichert and George Boepple, how cool is this to find this card. Would love to find it to purchase!

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