Advertising Cards
Advertising cards are small promotional cards issued by shops, manufacturers, or local businesses to advertise their goods and services. Unlike cigarette cards, they were not tied to a single mode of distribution: some were handed directly to customers, others were given with purchases, and others formed part of broader collecting schemes. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they became a flexible medium in which commerce, illustration, and popular reading culture met. Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle naturally entered this world as well: Holmes as a serial fictional figure well suited to narrative and pictorial sequences, and Conan Doyle as a celebrated public name whose portrait or authorship could lend prestige to an advertiser's campaign.
1901 Celebrities Black Border (Lever Bros Ltd.)
The Lever Bros. "Celebrities Black Border" series is an early twentieth-century British set of advertising portrait cards issued in connection with Sunlight Soap and related Lever Brothers products. The series is dated to 1901 and comprises 65 cards. The cards are characterized by their black border design, portrait format, and prominent Lever Brothers advertising, with references to Port Sunlight, Cheshire and products such as Royal Disinfectant Soap Powder. The reverse of at least some examples advertises albums for preserving collections of these portraits and states that such albums could be obtained by users of Sunlight Soap, showing that the series formed part of an organized collecting scheme rather than an isolated advertising handout. Among the known subjects is A. Conan Doyle (photo by Elliott & Fry). The exact mode of distribution remains to be established from primary documentation: the cards were certainly tied to Lever Brothers' soap promotion, but the presently available evidence does not by itself prove whether they were enclosed in packaging or distributed separately in connection with purchase.
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A. Conan Doyle -
Back -
Other card examples in the series.
1908 Sherlock Holmes (J. Miguel Arnau)
This Sherlock Holmes card series is a Spanish set of 10 numbered advertising cards combining popular fiction and commercial promotion. Each card bears on the front a colored Sherlock Holmes illustration with caption, while the reverse contains a section of a continuous Spanish prose narrative about the detective, accompanied by advertisement for a brand. While the narrative text and numbering remain constant, the advertisements on the reverse differ according to the sponsoring business. Among the surviving cards are backs advertising the establishments of :
- Farmacia Rafael Sanromá (Pharmacy)
- Drogueria Manuel Sanromá (Drugstore)
- Fabricante de Chocolate Esteban Sabater (Chocolate)
- Fabrica de Chocolates Luis Comet (Chocolate)
- Chocolate Viladás (Chocolate)
- And probably others...
These names identify advertisers or distributors of particular issues, not necessarily the publisher of the series itself. The reverse imprint reads "Tip. Lit. J. Miguel Arnau – Muntaner, 66 – Barcelona," identifying the Barcelona printing and lithographic house responsible for production. The series may therefore be attributed, in printing terms, to J. Miguel Arnau, though the actual publisher or issuing firm remains uncertain.
The cards were probably handed out by the sponsoring businesses to customers, either directly in the shop or in connection with purchases; however, the precise distribution method is not yet documented for this series.
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Sherlock Holmes series (J. Miguel Arnau, 1908)
1914 Heroes of Famous Books (King's Specialties)
Heroes of Famous Books is a British advertising trade-card series issued in 1914 for King's Specialties of Newcastle-on-Tyne. The set uses scenes and characters drawn from well-known literary works to promote the firm’s food products, placing fictional heroes in explicitly commercial situations. Among the subjects is Sherlock Holmes, who appears not as part of a Holmes-only narrative set, but as one figure within a broader gallery of popular literary characters.
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Card No. 12 : "Sherlock Holmes finds a secret cupboard filled with King's Table Jellies." -
Card back. -
Other card examples in the series.
1920s Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes (Jaime Boix)
The Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes cards issued by Chocolate Jaime Boix form a Spanish series of advertising premium cards produced in Barcelona in the 1920s. The set comprises 40 cards and combines illustrated scenes with Spanish descriptive text on the versos. Rather than presenting a single continuous narrative, the series draws on several Sherlock Holmes stories, including The Musgrave Ritual (El Ritual de los Musgrave), The Speckled Band (La Banda Moteada), and The Sign of Four (La Marca de los Cuatro).
The Jaime Boix Sherlock Holmes cards were likely distributed as promotional premiums with chocolate purchases, but it is not yet documented whether they were enclosed in the packet or handed separately to customers.
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Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes (full set)
1922 Célébrités contemporaines (Félix Potin)
The "3e Collection Félix Potin" is a French series of advertising portrait cards issued under the French grocery business "Félix Potin" name as part of the long-running "Célébrités contemporaines" collections. The Conan Doyle card belongs to this 3rd series, generally dated to 1922, and presents him as "Conan Doyle — Homme de lettres" (Conan Doyle — Man of Letters).
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"Conan Doyle - Homme de lettres" (Conan Doyle — Man of Letters) -
Card back. -
Other card examples in the 3rd series.
