Pea Journal — Rice & Co. 1885 Victorian Trade Card

In the 1880s, Jerome B. Rice of Cambridge Valley, New York, found the perfect salesman for his seeds: a pea couple dressed in Victorian formal attire bearing the legend “Rice’s Seeds — We Are American Wonders” — part of a celebrated plant people trade card series that turned chromolithographic whimsy into one of the most effective marketing strategies of the Gilded Age; the front cover reproduces Rice’s iconic 1885 trade card in full (an anthropomorphic pea couple in tailcoat, top hat, bonnet, and full-skirted dress, both constructed from pea pods and rendered in vivid chromolithography), while the back cover presents a vintage-style botanical lithograph of the Grand American Pea (Pisum sativum L.) — cross-section of the pod, real-size seeds and seedlings, and a mature plant climbing a trellis, inspired by seed catalog illustrations originally copyrighted in 1883 by Clark & Richmond of Buffalo, N.Y.

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Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal with matte laminated full-wrap cover
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 250 g (0.55 lbs)
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• Collectors of Americana, Victorian trade cards, and 19th-century advertising ephemera
• Gardeners and horticulturalists who love heirloom varieties and kitchen garden traditions
• Botanical illustrators and artists inspired by Victorian seed catalog lithography
• Food historians and culinary enthusiasts celebrating American seed heritage
• Fans of Victorian humour, anthropomorphic art, and Gilded Age popular culture
• Thoughtful gifts for home cooks, allotment gardeners, and whimsical stationery lovers