Yard pictures were consumer giveaways

"Yard-long prints" can sometimes be a yard wide, but those who collect these 36-inch-by-8-inch prints prefer the term "yard-long" or the original 19th-century name, "yard picture." Just before 1900, lithography companies began making these skinny pictures as premiums they gave away for wrappers and 2-cents postage. The first were titled "Yard of Puppies," or "Yard of Roses," and pictured a grouping of dogs or flowers on a 36-inch-wide and 8-inch-high print. Later, beautiful women standing in long dresses were pictured on a piece of paper 36 inches long. Many included advertisements for companies or small calendar pads at the bottom. Mandeville & King Seeds, Diamond Crystal Salt Co., Selz Good Shoes and Pabst all gave out yard-longs. Subjects run from flowers to children's heads to months of the year, but most seem to picture women. Most yard-long prints date from before 1920, although reproductions have been made. Value is determined by rarity and condition. A collector wants a print that has not been trimmed, the original metal band at the bottom and the calendar pad, if there was one.

CURRENT PRICES

This yard-long print pictures the Selz Good Shoes lady. The picture, drawn by Howard Chandler Christy, was a shoe company premium in about 1920. Rich Penn Auctions of Waterloo, Iowa, recently sold it for $358. Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

Mayo's Tobacco quilt, cotton, red squares, white ground, with picture of tobacco pack in each center, 80 by 63 inches, $130.

Ideal Saucy Walker doll, plastic head, brunette, blue sleep eyes, open mouth, 1952, 14 inches, $315.

Ripley's "Believe It or Not" poster, featuring 540-pound Big Baby Bertha Curtis, 1940s, 42 by 54 inches, $345.

Coin silver fiddle-thread sugar tongs, rectangular, engraved script, Hyde & Goodrich, c. 1850, 6-3/4 inches, $400.

Opaline glass syllabub service, gold rim, tureen with lid, ladle, 12-inch tureen, 11 cups, $480.

Hooked rug, Pied Piper of Hamelin, wool and fabric, rats with silhouette of town background, dated 1945, 25 by 44 inches, $945.

Newcomb College pottery bowl, daffodils, blue, green and yellow underglaze, marked, 1914, 2-1/2 by 5 inches, $1,175.

Terry Kovel answers your questions

Q: I am trying to identify the manufacturer of an armoire that was left to me. The only mark on it is a triangle with "C.F. Co." in the center and the words "Continental Superior Quality" on the three sides. Can you help?

A: Your armoire was made by the Continental Furniture Co. of High Point, N.C. During the 1920s, North Carolina companies led the country in the production of bedroom furniture. Continental was founded in 1901 and made Colonial Revival bedroom furniture during the 1920s and '30s. The company leased exhibit space at the American Furniture Mart, which opened in Chicago in 1924, and sold furniture to hotels, too.

Q: I would appreciate any information you can give me about my old cast-iron inkstand. On the stand there's a figure of a blacksmith next to an anvil and a safe. The safe is labeled "Herring's Patent Champion."

A: You have a 19th-century advertising inkstand made to promote safes manufactured by Herring and Co. The firm was founded in New York City in 1849 by Silas C. Herring (c. 1803-1881). In about 1892, Herring & Co. bought two competitors, the Marvin Safe Co. and Hall's Safe & Lock Co., and was renamed Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co. In 1959 Herring-Hall-Marvin was sold to Diebold. Your inkstand was made between 1849 and 1892. It would be of interest to collectors of old advertising, inkstands or safe-related collectibles. Large advertising inkstands about the age of yours sell for about $250.