"Visiting cards for the
coming season are of unglazed card board, large and almost square. Tinted cards,
especially buff, are fashionable. The lettering is in old English text, or in script. The
expense of fifty cards is $3.50.
One corner of the card is turned down to denote the object of the visit. In different
cities a different signification is attached to these broken cards. We give the custom of
New York society. On the left hand upper corner the word Visite is engraved on the reverse
side. This corner is turned downed, displaying the word on the front of the card to
signify that an ordinary call is made. On the right hand corner is Felicitation, to be
used when making a visit of congratulation on some happy event, such as a marriage, or the
birth of a child. On the left lower side is Conge, or Good-by. The remaining corner is
marked Condolence."
More about Calling Cards
In Victorian circles the leaving of a calling card formed part of a social etiquette, which had a whole variety of meanings. This fashionable habit soon spread through Europe, and ineed to the far reaches of the British Empire.
Over a century ago, during the Victorian era, one of the favorite pastimes
was collecting small, illustrated advertising cards that we now call trade cards. These
trade cards evolved from cards of the late 1700s used by tradesmen to advertise their
services. Although examples from the early 1800s exist, it was not until the spread of
color lithography in the 1870s that trade cards became plentiful.
By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising America's products and
services, and a trip to the store usually brought back some of these attractive, brightly
colored cards to be pasted into a scrapbook--as the children are doing in the Chase's
Liquid Glue trade card shown here.
In the late 1800s claims made for patent medicines were not
regulated by law, and trade cards advertising these medicines usually promised miraculous
results.
This card advertising Hunt's Remedy, The Great Kidney and Liver Medicine, is a good
example. It claims that the medicine cures dropsy and all diseases of the kidneys,
bladder, and urinary organs; and is never known to fail. Forbes Co., Boston, printed this
card, shown here at seventy percent of its actual size.
"Often as the subject of the use of cards and the etiquette of visiting is discussed with correspondents there remain always certain points to be taken up and explained...."
"It is generally understood that women leave their husband's cards. The
custom is for a married woman calling formally on another married woman to leave one of
her own and two of her husband's cards, one of his being for the hostess, the other for
her husband...."
"As a rule, it is impossible to do more than make a single call a year on
acquaintances in large cities, and this is supposed to be sufficient..."
"Occasions when other calls are obligatory. After a wedding breakfast, a luncheon, a
dinner, a card party, or any evening entertainment to which one has been invited, a call
should be made after the event whether one has accepted or not.... When an invitation to a
church wedding, or a marriage announcement, is received, it is necessary to send cards to
those in whose name it was issued and to the newly married pair... In large cities it is
usual to leave cards when attending an afternoon tea..."
"It is bad form to write "regrets" or
"accepts" on a card. A note of reply must be written in acknowledgement of an
invitation... It is unreasonable to fancy that one's acquaintance is not desired because a
call has not been returned promptly. There are many reasons for delayed calls. Illness in
the family, absence from town, many occupations, may prevent the best-intentioned persons
from making calls...."
"If an acquaintance calls after a long delay it is a duty to welcome her cordially...
to hasten to accept any explanation she may offer and not to allude to it again...."
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