Warner’s Safe Cure: Artist’s Album (1888) – Part I

If you have been following this blog for even a short amount of time, you have undoubtedly come to the conclusion that collecting Warner’s Safe Cures extends beyond just the bottles. Warners collectors are blessed with an enormous array of advertising paper and other ephemera produced by one of the great proprietary medicine companies of  the late 19th and early 20th centuries. H. H. Warner missed few, if any, opportunities to plaster the reading public with his brand, whether by almanacs, newspaper ads, posters, cookbooks or puzzles and games. This list is extensive.

Having said that, the question becomes which examples of his advertising best informs us of the enterprise. By my way of thinking, his almanacs and other publications give us one of the most complete pictures of his pitch to an American public desperate to cope with disease in an age where real, medically competent physicians were indeed rare. Among his publications, one of the best has to be his Artist’s Albums. I say “albums,” because there were actually two. While one of the two is distinctly more rare than the other, both are terrific examples of his marketing. The version with Santa Claus going down the chimney (above) is the more common of the two, while the version with the boy sitting on the log (below) is rare.

Unlike other Warner’s Safe publications that were printed by Mensing & Stecher, the Artists’ Albums were printed by Cosack & Company of Buffalo, New York. The back cover of both albums featured a box of Log Cabin Sarsaparilla.

Apart from the terrific graphics, the Artists’ Albums feature the most comprehensive catalog of the Warner’s Safe Cure inventory as it existed in 1888. The featured products included Safe Cure, Rheumatic Cure, Diabetes Cure, Nervine, Tippecanoe – The Best, Asthma Cure, Safe Pills, Benton Hair Grower, Animal Cure, Log Cabin Sarsaparilla, Log Cabin Hops & Buchu Remedy, Log Cabin Cough & Consumption Remedy, Log Cabin Hair Tonic, Log Cabin Extract, Log Cabin Plaster, Log Cabin Rose Cream, Log Cabin Liver Pills and Safe Yeast.  Each of the products was discussed and a facsimile of the package was included. The next part of this post will feature some of those articles.

The Artists’ Albums were issued at about the time that Warner’s medicine empire reached its peak. Over the period of the next five years, Warner went from proprietary medicine mogul to financial collapse and public humiliation. These publications provide us with a glimpse of the types of products pitched to our great grandparents.

Special thanks to Jon Moran for reminding me of the uniqueness of the Artist’s Album and providing me with scans of its contents.

Warner’s Safe Cure: Victorian Viagra?

The advertising poster above was issued by the Warner’s Safe Cure Company in 1886. As with other classic pieces of Warner advertising, this was created by Mensing & Stecher of Rochester. The interesting thing about this ad is that the only words on it are “TAKE WARNER’S SAFE CURE.” Apart from that you have the image of an elderly gentleman accompanied by an attractive Victorian woman.

What exactly is the message being conveyed by this ad? Certainly, the benign message is that a young woman is escorting her father or grandfather, who is beset by some unknown malady, perhaps Brights Disease. Without implying that my mind is in the gutter, I would suggest that the ad attempts to convey a less benign message. Namely, that if you use Warner’s Safe Cure,  young chicks will dig you and you’ll get a spring in your step (among other places). Lest you think I may be attributing claims to Warner’s Safe Cure that were not made by the proprietor, take a gander at the Safe Cure label, which clearly says that the panacea cures, among other things, IMPOTENCY.

 I rest my case.

Warner’s Safe Cure: Mensing & Stecher Lithographers

I recently received a question about the Warner’s Nervine Tiger from Daniel McHenry. Daniel has been fortunate enough to obtain what he believes is an original of this great advertising lithograph. From his description, he may well be correct. In any event, Daniel did some research about the origins of this particular piece and correctly found that it was the product of a company call Mensing & Stecher of Rochester. Those of you who collect Warner’s advertising in addition to the Safe Cure bottles are familiar with this company, which, during the 1880′s apparently did some, but not all of Warner’s lithography. Daniel’s research prompted me to assemble this post on Mensing & Stecher.

First, what is lithography? Without going into excruciating detail, which I will let others do, it is a printing method developed in the late 18th Century, which divides a flat stone surface into regions that accept ink and those that do not, using an oil or gum material. It was used extensively both in advertising and print making in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The firm of Mensing & Stecher started as  Charles F. Muntz & Company in 1871. According to an articles entitled “Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates” by  Karl Sanford  Kabelac published in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin (Vol. XXV 1982), Muntz, Frank A. Stecher and Anton Rahn formed the business. When Muntz left in 1874-75, the company was renamed Mensing, Rahn & Stecher and later Mensing & Stecher. The firm ran ads in the Rochester City Directory from 1875 through 1881. In 1882, Mensing & Stecher opened a new plant on St. Paul Street (the same street where Warner would open his building in January, 1884). In 1886, Stecher bought out Mensing and renamed the company the Stecher Lithographic Company, which by 1888 employed 100 people with $125,000 in equipment.  While the company handled advertising graphics, it is perhaps most well-known for it fruit and flower prints and nurseryman’s plates, which are still reproduced. By 1897, the letterhead of Stecher Lithographic Company lists offices in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

Mensing & Stecher has continued to the present and is located in Detroit. It is now known as Stecher-Traung-Schmidt. The Rochester Plant was closed in 1980.

The Mensing & Stecher name appears on a variety of Warner advertising, including trade cards and advertising posters including the famous Warner’s Safe Yeast Comet trade card.

The relationship between Warner’s Safe Cure and Mensing & Stecher does not appear to have been exclusive of other lithographers. When Warner opened his new building in 1884, it included an extensive advertising department, which may have handled artwork that had previously been contracted out. Also, the names of other lithographers appear on Warner’s advertising, including Cosack & Company Lithographers of Buffalo, New York, which appeared on the 1887 Artist’s Album.

The legacy of H. H. Warner is not only his bottles, but his extensive advertising materials. Mensing & Stecher played an important role in those materials that deserves attention. Thanks to Daniel for raising this interesting topic.

Warner’s Safe Nervine Tiger

For years, I have seen the Warner’s Safe Nervine poster featuring a heroic woman killing a tiger. The advertisement reads “Warner’s Safe Nervine Gives Rest & Sleep, Cures Headache & Neuralgia, Vertigo or Dizziness. Is A Positive Remedy for Nervous Prostration Caused By Excessive Pains, Drinking, Mental Shocks, Overwork, Etc.” At the base of the ad it reads “Warner’s Safe Pills Have No Equal.” All in all a wonderful piece of advertising.

The problem is that at some point in the 1960′s or 1970′s, the original poster was reproduced and distributed as a piece of vintage advertising. Over the years, many of those reproduced posters have made there way into the market and have appeared on auctions sites like eBay. At least one copy of the original poster does exist and is in a private collection. Other originals may also be available for purchase, but the prospective buyer should be careful. Often, the reproductions are listed as “vintage” with no mention that the poster is a reproduction. This may be because the seller does not realize that he is selling a reproduction or perhaps he does. On the reproductions that I have seen, a copywrite date is visible in the lower right hand corner of the document. Sometimes that date is obscured by framing around the poster. The above example shows a date of 1893 and may well be an original, but would still require careful examination by a buyer to ensure its authenticity.