Ephemera for Lunch #9: Gilbert S. Graves' starch

Here are two colorful cards for Gilbert S. Graves, a 19th century starch manufacturer out of Buffalo, New York. Their products included mirror gloss starch¹, family starch and laundry starch. Both cards feature a complete 1882 calendar on the back.

These are both great illustrations, but I think the second one is my favorite, because I like winter illustrations. That's a great scarf the girl has on, too.

Footnote
1. Corn starch remains a bit of a magical secret ingredient for cleaning glass and mirrors. Here's an excerpt from a 2010 post titled "Battle of the Homemade Glass Cleaners" on the Crunchy Betty blog:

“What the …. cornstarch?” you ask.
“Yes,” I reply. “Cornstarch.”
It’s absolutely, without a doubt the secret ingredient to clean, shiny, amazing mirrors (and windows, I’m sure). I kinda freaked out a little at the effectiveness of this one.