Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 89

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(BUSINESS--PUBLISHING.) Catalogue for "Personal Christmas Cards with Name Imprinted" from Color-Tone Originals. 6 panels, 12¾ x 6¼ inches, on one folding 12¾ x 18¾-inch sheet, printed in black and green on red stock, with 6 sample Christmas cards laid down on the interior panels; minimal wear. Mount Vernon, NY: Color-Tone Originals, circa early 1960s
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Additional Details

We have previously offered this company's 1963 catalogue of Christmas cards "designed and manufactured by Negroes . . . for Negroes." The present catalogue does not spell out their background so clearly, but all six of the sample cards are designed for a Black audience in the classic early 1960s style: carolers, Christmas shoppers, and Mary with baby Jesus. The interiors of these sample cards are printed with the names of fictional customers: a barber shop, a funeral home, a minister's family. The company ran ads in the nation's Black press from at least 1953 to 1963. A 31 December 1960 article in the Michigan Chronicle described them as the "largest manufacturers of Negro greeting cards" and marked their tenth anniversary.

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