Trade card for Thomas Clout, printer 1700 - 1800

Curator: Let's delve into this trade card for Thomas Clout, printer, dating from somewhere between 1700 and 1800. It's a charming piece of graphic art now residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: Oh, how lovely! It whispers of simpler times, yet there's a clear striving for elegance. A time capsule, really, meticulously crafted with delicate lines... a whisper of the Baroque maybe? Curator: Precisely. Note the engraving – every flourish tells a story, focusing intensely on materials and their specific arrangement to meet societal demands. It speaks volumes about 18th-century consumer culture. "Letter-Press and Copper-Plate printer"...it seems Mr. Clout wanted to be seen as a craftsman of the printing trade rather than a common shopkeeper. Editor: Indeed. And observe the listed wares: books, periodicals, "elegant paper-hangings," even "genuine medicine and perfumery." A one-stop shop for refined living. I love the implied story. Who was Thomas Clout, and what sort of lives did his customers lead? Were they like characters straight out of a novel? Curator: Exactly. A materialist approach allows us to appreciate how printing elevated social standing. A trade card wasn't merely a piece of advertising, it was social capital made visible. The labour to design, cut, and print copperplates for this trade card, demonstrates an awareness of the labor needed to acquire this reputation in a growing consumer culture. Editor: Right—and the decorative flourishes, the pastoral vignettes tucked into the corners, those little details, signal a reach for a lifestyle, maybe just out of reach for most... A daydream sold with ink and paper. There’s a delicate balance. Curator: In essence, we see printing here not just as a means of communication but a system that bolstered status. A delicate dance between creation, labor, and the societal structure of Georgian England, where Thomas Clout likely resided, or perhaps hoped to reside. Editor: So true. This unassuming little trade card illuminates so much about past lives and their relationship with printing, creation, labor, materials, and consumption. Now I just want to find more about Thomas Clout!