[8 Pharmaceutical Advertisements] [Chromolithographs] AYER'S CHERRY PECTORAL. . . by J. C. Ayer & Co. (firm) - 1884

Lowell, MA: J. C. Ayer & Co, 1884. Broadside. 8 advertisements. 4 small (approx 5" x 2.5") cards advertising Ayer & Co. with chromolithographic recto and printed verso; 1 larger (8.5" x 5.5") in the same format; 1 bifolium (once wrappers for a pamphlet) from Shiloh's Family Remedies (S. C. Wells & Co. Le Roy, NY), with chromolithographs on outer wrapper and printed advertisement and 1887-8 calendar on the inner wrapper; 1 small card for Dr. D. Jayne's Expectorant with chromolithographic recto and printed verso; and 1 from Brown's Bronchial Trouches with illustrated front and black verso. Condition varies: the small Ayer & Co. cards as well as Brown's are quite nice. The larger Ayer has some edgewear and scuffing to the rear where it appeared glue down to something and removed (does not affect text); Jayne's is chipped at the bottom corner (not affecting the printed text on the verso, but just touching the chromolithograph) and some wear to the top corner; Shiloh's has holes at the fold were the staples pulled through; light toning and soiling.

Ayer was perhaps the most successful of the manufacturers represented here, and in large part due to his advertisements. Three of these are for his Cherry Pectoral, his flagship medicine developed in 1841. After Ayer's death in 1878, the manufacturing and accompanying advertisements as here was continued by his brother. A nice selection of 19th century advertisements for patent medicine. Oxford Dictionary of American Biography.