Trade card

Object Type
This object is a trade card. A trade card was an advertisement, as well as a business card, which was often also used by the tradesman as a bill or receipt. The lettering on this card has been produced by a technique called engraving, whereby lines are cut into the surface of a flat piece of metal. The image has been achieved by stipple etching, where the tones of the print are rendered with dots and short flicks which are bitten into the metal plate with acid. In both cases the marks and lines on the plate are then filled with ink, which by the printing process is then transferred onto a sheet of paper.

Subjects Depicted
The trade card depicts Britannia, with helmet, spear, shield and lion. This image was aptly chosen for this trade card because William Coldwell was a manufacturer of Britannia metal goods. Britannia metal is silvery-white alloy of tin with antimony, copper and sometimes bismuth and zinc. It is very similar in appearance to pewter, but is harder. It was used widely for the manufacture of tableware. The large-scale manufacture of Britannia metal goods started around 1780 in England, with production centred mainly in Sheffield and Birmingham.

Britain was engaged in the Napoleonic War at the time this trade card was produced, so the patriotic image of Britannia would have been both familiar and popular.