English: Trade card, 1730-1742 V&A Museum no. 14435:60

Techniques - Etching, ink on paper

Artist/designer - Unknown

Place - London, England (printing)

Dimensions - Height 17.2 cm (unmounted), Width 21 cm

Object Type - This object is a printed trade card. Trade cards were business cards and advertisements. Tradesmen often also used them to write receipts or bills on.

Subject Depicted - The trade card depicts the interior of Christopher Gibson's upholstery shop in St Paul's Churchyard, London. Little is known of Christopher Gibson's upholstery business, which is recorded from 1730 to 1745, except that on two occasions he supplied chairs to the East India Company for furnishing East India Company House in leadenhall Street, London.

Several upholsterers can be seen at work around the shop, and a wide range of goods is displayed. There are several cane chairs, chairs with upholstered seats, rolls of fabric, a mirror and an angel bed (a bed with a canopy which attaches to the back wall). Funerary 'hatchments' (the coats of arms on black backgrounds) can also been seen hanging near the stairs.

Although the trade card is probably not an accurate representation of the interior of Christopher Gibson's shop, all the objects included would have been chosen to show the range of goods that Gibson could supply. The fact that the funerary equipment is included therefore suggests that Gibson's business included the furnishing of funerals alongside the upholstery of furniture.

The well-dressed man in the centre is possibly meant to be Christopher Gibson himself, showing a chair to two the two women, likely customers.