An Early Advertising Cover

This is an example of one of the earliest types of advertising covers used in the United States. The cover appears to be used in the mid 1860's. The envelope is yellow and the advertising cornercard is a "shield" design.

You can contrast this design with the far more elaborate full color, or finely engraved advertising images shown elsewhere on this website.

Collectors of U. S. Civil War patriotic covers admire the beautiful color printing used on those items, but the advertising covers I've seen from that era are of this more simple design.

Note that this cover is from a garment wholesaler. It appears that New York was in the "rag trade" far back in the 19th Century.

If you wish, you can load the picture separately [27k JPG].

Copyright©1999 Robert Swanson

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