SIX CHILDREN'S CARDS, IN COLOR, EACH DEPICTING A WELL-KNOWN CONTEMPORARY PERSON: ULYSSES S. GRANT, BENJAMIN BUTLER, HENRY WARD BEECHER, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, THOMAS DE WITT TALMAGE, AND AN UNIDENTIFIED AFRICAN-AMERICAN. EACH CARD CUT INTO THREE DISTINCT PARTS [HEAD, TORSO AND LEGS] WITH WORDS NEXT TO EACH SECTION SO THAT PARTS CAN BE MIXED AND MATCHED TO CHANGE PHRASES AND APPEARANCE OF EACH CHARACTER'S BODY by Stranders, Walter - 1881

[New York?: Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company ?, 1881. Six brightly colored cards printed on thick cardboard. Each full card measures 7" x 9"; each individual section measures 3" x 9". Six cards in all, a total of 18 sections. Light wear and spotting, all with copyright of March 22, 1881, printed at bottom right corner [occasional loss of one or two numerals of the date]. Very Good. The cards, an early form of a type popular with children today, were patented by Walter Stranders of New York City on March 22, 1881, under Patent 239,281. Stranders sought to "produce new and improved game of cards for children, by which changes in figures of men or other living creatures may be made, and by which different combinations of sentences may be made, representing ludicrous utterances of the figures." Stranders's patent application included a diagram showing how two of his three-section cards could be interchanged to make new characters and sayings. [19 OFFICIAL GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE, NO. 12, TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1881, p.719]. These illustrations are tongue-in-cheek, humorous depictions. General Grant, smoking a cigar, wears his red and yellow uniform with epaulettes, with accompanying caption, "Let us have peace - my countrymen - all the time." Benjamin Butler, owner of the yacht "The America," wears a sailor's suit, accompanied by caption, "Get greenbacks - you scoundrels - if you can." Henry Ward Beecher, in Native American outfit complete with a tomahawk and necklace made of animal teeth, captioned, "Hear me - and follow me - one and all." James Gordon Bennett, the influential newspaperman, wears a Scottish jacket, sash, kilt and hose; the caption reads "Be industrious - and pay your bills - I implore you." Thomas De Witt Talmage-- prominent New York Presbyterian preacher and crusader against vice-- is a fireman holding a horn, his hat on the ground, with caption, "Come to my tabernacle - and be investigated - for ever and ever." A sixth unidentified character who appears to be a black woman wears a scarf and earrings; a red, yellow and blue blouse, skirt, ribbon and shoes. She holds a sunflower, with caption, "Kiss me - my chillen - and now am de time." Stranders offered similar card collections under several patents during the early part of 1881 though at least 1884. Some such cards were produced and sold by McLoughlin Brothers. Those offered here may have been manufactured by the Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company of New York, the manufacturer noted in the patent. ["Walter Stranders, of New York, N.Y., Assignor to Edward R. Ives, of Bridgeport, Conn., and Cornelius Blakeslee and Edward G. Williams, of Brooklyn, N.Y. ...Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 239,281, dated March 22, 1881. Application filed February 10, 1881.].