SOAP TRADE CARDS,; Set of 12 different trade cards for two brands of soap, all designed by Gilman, her first published works.

Boston and Providence (RI): Curtis Davis & Co and Kendall Mfg. Co., ca 1880-84. gilman. Twelve cards (4-1/2 x 3 in) with a chromolithographed image of a woman on the recto with an adv. for the Curtis Davis and Kendall Mfg. , Co. Fine images, several have residue from mounting on the rear. Gilman's first published work. Lane, "To Herland and Back, p. 63; Gilman, "The Living", p. 47; MacDonnell, Kevin. "Cards by Charlotte Perkins Gilman" in Trade Card Collections Assoc., Fall, 2001. Rare. Item #58299

After studying at Rhode Island School of Design, in 1880, at the age of twenty, Gilman and her cousin Robert Brown designed trade cards for at least four soap companies to earn money. The Kendall cards are quite playful: showing a female archer, a young boy lassos a star, a magician touches the finger tips of a woman, etc. Her original sketches are preserved among her papers and at least 30 cards have been attributed to her. Many of the images show women working like troopers at their domestic chores. The cards themselves, Gilman's first attempts of earning an independent living.

Price: $1,250.00 save 20% $1,000.00