This gorgeous book presents more than 700 cards in full color and includes fascinating insights, pricing tips, card identification, and values for over 2,000 cards. It augments an enormous collection numbering over 15,000 cards.

This book is a comprehensive, illustrated reference for the chromolithographic advertising cards issued by the Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company in the late 19th Century. Such cards were printed and distributed by a multitude of businesses during this period, and are commonly referred to as "Victorian Trade Cards." To promote their "ARIOSA" brand of coffee, Arbuckles' distributed hundreds of different cards, most of them inserted into their 1-lb. coffee packages, and many of them in distinct and numbered series. Some cards simply consisted of pretty pictures on the front, with Ariosa coffee advertising on the back. Many others purported to be educational in nature, weaving topics such as history, geography, zoology, and even cooking into both the illustrations and the accompanying narratives. This reference includes full-color images of each and every card that was issued as part of a series, as well as most of the known cards that were issued independently. Printing varieties that have been identified for some cards are detailed and, in most cases, also illustrated. For a few of the series, which did not use designs originally commissioned for Arbuckles', background information has been included which traces the original sources for those designs. Hopefully, this reference will serve not only as a valuable resource for active collectors of these wonderful old pieces of Americana, but perhaps also as an inspiration for future collectors and historians to delve into the fascinating world of both the Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company and Victorian Trade Cards in general.

An “utterly brilliant” and deeply researched guide to the sights, smells, endless wonders, and profound changes of nineteenth century British history (Books Monthly, UK). Step into the past and experience the world of Victorian England, from clothing to cuisine, toilet arrangements to transport—and everything in between. A Visitor’s Guide to Victorian England is “a brilliant guided tour of Charles Dickens’s and other eminent Victorian Englishmen’s England, with insights into where and where not to go, what type of people you’re likely to meet, and what sights and sounds to watch out for . . . Utterly brilliant!” (Books Monthly, UK). Like going back in time, Higgs’s book shows armchair travelers how to find the best seat on an omnibus, fasten a corset, deal with unwanted insects and vermin, get in and out of a vehicle while wearing a crinoline, and avoid catching an infectious disease. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this book blends accurate historical details with compelling stories to bring alive the fascinating details of Victorian daily life. It is a must-read for seasoned social history fans, costume drama lovers, history students, and anyone with an interest in the nineteenth century.

How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss the Bible? What made Victorian cartoonists mock commuters who hid behind the newspaper, ladies who matched their books' binding to their dress, and servants who reduced newspapers to fish 'n' chips wrap? Shedding new light on novels by Thackeray, Dickens, the Brontës, Trollope, and Collins, as well as the urban sociology of Henry Mayhew, Leah Price also uncovers the lives and afterlives of anonymous religious tracts and household manuals. From knickknacks to wastepaper, books mattered to the Victorians in ways that cannot be explained by their printed content alone. And whether displayed, defaced, exchanged, or discarded, printed matter participated, and still participates, in a range of transactions that stretches far beyond reading. Supplementing close readings with a sensitive reconstruction of how Victorians thought and felt about books, Price offers a new model for integrating literary theory with cultural history. How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain reshapes our understanding of the interplay between words and objects in the nineteenth century and beyond.

Part memoir, part micro-history, this is an exploration of the present through the lens of the past--now in paperback! We all know that the best way to study a foreign language is to go to a country where it's spoken, but can the same immersion method be applied to history? How do interactions with antique objects influence perceptions of the modern world? From Victorian beauty regimes to nineteenth-century bicycles, custard recipes to taxidermy experiments, oil lamps to an ice box, Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman decided to explore nineteenth-century culture and technologies from the inside out. Even the deepest aspects of their lives became affected, and the more immersed they became in the late Victorian era, the more aware they grew of its legacies permeating the twenty-first century. Most of us have dreamed of time travel, but what if that dream could come true? Certain universal constants remain steady for all people regardless of time or place. No matter where, when, or who we are, humans share similar passions and fears, joys and triumphs. In her first book, Victorian Secrets, Chrisman recalled the first year she spent wearing a Victorian corset 24/7. In This Victorian Life, Chrisman picks up where Secrets left off and documents her complete shift into living as though she were in the nineteenth century.

Collecting small antiques can be of absorbing interest, partly because the items are easy to display and partly because they can be found in a great variety of places, including antique shops, public auctions, bric-a-brac stalls, garage sales and flea markets. Each title in this series is written by an expert in his or her chosen subject...with a wealth of practical advice to help the novice over any initial hurdles, guidance on prices and over 100 illustrations to help with identification.