Trade Card for J. H. Bonnell & Co., Print Ink Seller
19th century
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 1/2 × 7/8 in. (1.3 × 2.2 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Bella C. Landauer, 1926
Accession Number
26.28.255
Art Historical Context
This diminutive lithograph, a trade card for J. H. Bonnell & Co., ink sellers, captures the world of 19th-century British commerce in a mere 1/2 × 7/8 inches. Produced anonymously by a British artist, it exemplifies ephemera—those everyday printed items like advertisements that were once discarded but now cherished for their snapshot of history. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, was generously gifted by collector Bella C. Landauer 1926. Lithography, the medium here, revolutionized printing in the 19th century by allowing affordable, colorful reproducti...