Star Bookmarks

by

Laine Farley

A fantastic series of bookmark/trade cards have led me on an expedition to learn about their origin. They are always labeled Star Braid, the product name for a decorative type of braid with pointed edges. They are distinctive for two reasons:  the brightly colored designs usually feature costumes with renaissance elements, and a roll of the Star Braid is incorporated into the action of the scene. These little vignettes are so unusual in their vibrancy and whimsical portrayals that I wanted to know their story.

The first few I found had no attribution other than “T. Hunter, Lith, Phila.” Luckily, the University of Pennsylvania Library has a collection on lithographers active in Philadelphia which revealed that Thomas Hunter worked from the 1860s to the 1880s. He was a partner with Stephen C. Duval in the firm of Duval & Hunter until 1874 when it disbanded and Hunter used his own name. This clue confirmed that the bookmarks had to be issued after 1874. 

The second clue was the patent information on the roll of braid that reads “Patented June 25, 1878, reissued Jan 6, 1880.” Excellent information but it does not reveal the manufacturer or the patent number. The U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office makes all patents available back to 1790, but those issued prior to 1976 are searchable only by the issue date, patent number and classification. A search on the issue date yields 314 patents, a few too many to scan easily. I tried searching “star braid 1878” in Google Patents which indexes the full text.  The only record was for a patent by August Moll of Brooklyn to improve the Star Braid manufacturing process. The mystery deepened.

A troubadour with a mandolin serenades a woman on a balcony who is holding the end of a roll of Star Braid, while the sun featuring the star logo shines above. Will she tie it to her balustrade and climb down to meet her lover? Or perhaps she will use it to knock down the singing supplicant if his songs displease her. This bookmark has an ad for Gordon’s Dry Goods and Millinery House in Rochester, NY promoting a “Great Closing Out Sale in Every Department of My Store.” I found a New York Times article stating that he was being sued in 1885 which probably dates this bookmark. Interesting and poignant as this story was, it gave me no information on the bookmark’s origin.

The next Star Braid bookmark I acquired has a boy and girl suspended on a swing of braid with an ad for a business called the Bee Hive on the reverse, featuring a sale on their laces. Thanks to the Rockaway Township Library in Rockaway, NJ, I located ads in the Iron Era newspaper confirming that the Bee Hive sold “dry and fancy goods” in Newark, NJ in 1897-1898.  But still there was no evidence of the Star Braid manufacturer.

The breakthrough came in December when I acquired a bookmark with children riding tricycles or high bicycles with wheels of braid. This scene is also curious. Two of the children wear clothing of the era, but the third has a cap with a long feather, short pants, short jacket, a red sash and shoes. What era or role he represents is unclear. And why is the other boy falling off his bicycle in the direction of the costumed boy? Regardless of these new mysteries, the reverse answers the question of who issued these cards. It states clearly that “S. B. & M. Fleisher, manufacturer of the ‘Star’ Braids and Saxony, Shetland, Floss and German Knitting Worsted” is issuing a series of six “chromo” (for chromolithographed) cards “each of a different design, executed at considerable expense, so as to be very attractive.” They were meant to be imprinted with the business name on the blank side as with the Bee Hive and Gordon’s Dry Goods examples. 

Within a matter of days, I acquired two other bookmarks, apparently completing the set of six designs, a real stroke of luck. The other two were equally charming and clearly part of the same series. A blond girl drives a chariot with braid wheels pulled by a butterfly and brandishes a pink feather whip. The sixth bookmark has a seamstress affixing braid from a large roll onto the dress train of a woman holding an umbrella. All of the cards have a distinctive burnished gold background and all were lithographed by “T. Hunter.” 

More research on the manufacturer confirmed that S. B. & M. Fleisher was started by brothers Simon B. Fleisher and Moyer Fleisher in Philadelphia around 1868 to manufacture worsted goods, according to entries in The Jews of Philadelphia, 1894, by Henry S. Morais. Moyer, who trained as a machinist and invented the first clamp skates, retired from the business in 1884 and it continued as S.B. and B. W. Fleisher. Simon Fleisher also engaged in other ventures including the cigar and tobacco business in New York before returning to Philadelphia to establish a braid manufacturing business. Perhaps it was his experience at age fifteen of working for a fancy dry goods house in New York and “devoting his leisure to reading and to fitting himself for a commercial career” that led him back to this venture. The firm apparently operated until 1930 when it defaulted on some bonds, as recorded in Figured Tapestry: Production, Markets and Power in Philadelphia Textiles, 1855-1941, by Philip Scranton, p. 407.

Further research might uncover a more detailed history of the firm, but nothing I found mentioned their marketing strategies or artists so I went back to the lithographer, Thomas Hunter. He was associated with a well-known artist and cartoonist, William Wallace Denslow, most famous for his illustrations of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Denslow had a distinctive style well suited to the fantastic Oz settings and characters. A number of his illustrations appear in an exhibit on the making of the Oz books called To Please a Child by the Library of Congress. They are whimsical, but they do not appear related to the enchanting illustrations on the Fleisher bookmarks and Denslow always used a stylized seahorse logo to sign his work.

The only other clue about these unique illustrations comes from Simon’s son Samuel S. Fleisher who joined the business. He was known for his work with children and founded the Graphic Sketch Club in 1899 for “poor boys and girls, a free non-sectarian art school, which now has four instructors and ninety pupils” according to Who’s Who in Pennsylvania, V. 2, 1908, p. 260.  Could the designs have come from one of his students? The school was founded a bit later than the probable dates of the bookmarks (1885, 1897) so this is a long shot.

One other curious bit of evidence arrived with another Star Braid bookmark in January. This card has the same basic illustration as the earlier “trimming the dress” design but with some interesting differences. Its overall feel is not quite as fantasy-like and exaggerated as the other designs. The woman is holding a fan rather than an umbrella, and most importantly, the large roll of braid is not incorporated into the design.  The card has been trimmed but there is also no mention of T. Hunter as the lithographer. 

The reverse lists awards received in the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, with other awards from 1874 and 1875 from other exhibitions. The patent claim is missing from the design and the text. With more information, I was able to locate the patent by searching “Fleisher braid”. Simon B. Fleisher filed Patent 207,114 for an improved device for holding braid on June 24, 1878. No wonder the bookmark designs feature the large spool with its star studded holder so prominently. It seems likely that these designs appeared around 1880 and were probably used for several years. Other examples of the cards appear occasionally and have variations such as making the Fleisher name more prominent, but I have not yet seen other designs.

The original announcement of the series proclaimed that the cards “will be prized and kept by all that get them.” Indeed they stand out as stars among bookmarks of their era, and my search for their designer will continue. 

Editor’s Note: Laine Farley’s column on bacon bookmarks was the recent subject of a post on Paper Cuts, the New York Times Book Review blog.

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [angel help]
Dimensions: 2 1/2"x 6 1/2"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1880s
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [troubadour]
Dimensions: 2 1/2"x 6 1/2"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1880s
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [suspended children]
Dimensions: 2 1/2"x 6 1/2"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1880s
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [tricycle race back]
Dimensions: 2 1/2"x 6 1/2"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1880s
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [trimming the dress]
Dimensions: 2 1/2"x 6 1/2"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1880s
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Star Braid [trimming the dress—fan]
Dimensions: 2 1/8" x 4 1/4"
Material: Paper card
Manufacturer: S. B. & M. Fleisher, Philadelphia, PA
Date: 1876?
Acquired: eBay


Laine Farley is a digital librarian who misses being around the look, feel and smell of real books.  Her collection of over 3,000 bookmarks began with a serendipitous find while reviewing books donated to the library. Fortunately, her complementary collection of articles and books about bookmarks provides an excuse for her to get back to libraries and try her hand at writing about bookmarks. Collecting Bookmarks (Physical, not Virtual) is Farley’s web site.  Contact Laine.