A Late 19thC Original Advertising Pictorial Hanging Show Card for "The Renowned Kearney & Foot Company Files & Rasps"

Origin: American
Period: Late Nineteenth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1890
Height: 9.5 inches
Width: 18.5 inches
 
A rather large, bold, yet attractively designed show card, Kearney & Foot Co. had offices in New York, New Jersey and Ohio and this card would have hung proudly in a hardware shop front bay window or perhaps on the shop door itself. The simplicity of design in this case is what makes the card appealing; often cards of this type were over complicated and thus lose their visual impact. Not here.

Show cards from the early twentieth century are more commonplace today, making this card a more desirable item though the years have taken some toll on the overall condition with some staining and fraying around the edges, but all is consummate with age with a card that has been in use for over a hundred years.

When sawing and drilling, you create burrs and sharp edges on your workpiece that need to be removed; and rasps and files take care of these. Because of all the possible combinations of teeth patterns, coarseness, shape, and thickness, there are countless kinds of files and rasps made for every common material and need, especially important in the domestic nineteenth century with the lack of household machinery.

This piece of advertising would hang especially well in a contemporary kitchen, bathroom or indeed a workshop, instantly adding an antiquarian feel to any neglected wall space.