Trade card

Object Type
This is a trade card, a type of large business card, often illustrated,setting out the goods and services a tradesman or woman had on offer.

Subject Depicted
The engraver Edward Warner (active about 1750) has shown, within, around and hanging from a very elaborate, asymmetrical Rococo framework, some of the goods sold by Henry Patten. His main stock seems to have been cutlery (some of it sold in special boxes), razors, penknives and scissors, including horse scissors. Patten evidently marked some, if not all, of his goods with his name or initials. The eel and the pike at the bottom of the card are a reference to his sideline in fishing tackle. The engraver has combined the fanciful with the commonplace. An exotic Chinoiserie dragon, perched on a branch of curling scrollwork, has a couple of Patten's combs hanging from its teeth. The engraver probably based the overall design on another trade card by Henry Copland for a goldsmith and watchmaker, Thomas Gardner. Copland in turn had partly based his card on a plate from A Book of Ornaments (1745) by Matthias Lock.

Place
Henry Patten's address is given as 'at the Saw and Crown in Middle Row Holborn'. Before London streets were numbered systematically, commercial premises were identified by their shop signs. Patten's shop sign may have resembled the saw and crown in the centre of the upper part of the card.