Trade card for J.M. Johnson, Engraver and Lithographer
19th century
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 1/8 in. × 7 in. (13 × 17.8 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
26.28.201
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling world of 19th British commerce with this charming trade card for J.M. Johnson, Engraver and Lithographer. anonymously in Britain during the Victorian era, this small engraving (measuring just 5 1/8 × 7 inches) served as a promotional tool, handed out to potential clients to showcase Johnson's expertise in fine printing techniques. Trade cards like this were everyday ephemera—disposable yet collectible artifacts that bridged art and advertising, reflecting the explosion of lithography and engraving in an industrialized age. Engraving, the medium here, involved incising i...