The British Museum has a large of British Trade Cards, Letterheads etc from many major collections. They can be seen on line by going to http://www.britishmuseum.org/research.aspx and entering into the “Search collection” search box the words <trade card> which will produce 6,137 !
Entering <trade card goldsmith > will limit the numbers to 711 and <trade card silversmith > will produce a further 9 . <trade card buckle> brings 15, several by silversmiths not caught in the previous sweeps.
( Note that the Search box at the extreme top of the page will NOT give the result required -use the slightly lower box )
The cataloguing is not brilliant and dating is largely absent, but each entry gives a small thumbnail, which can be expanded a larger image. This can be right clicked and saved to your harddrive if you wish . An even larger image of higher resolution is available free of charge , by clicking on the “Use digital image “ button on each entry. It’s a bit long winded but they do send you a very good image by Email , usually within a few hours.
A feature not well known is that many of them are from the Ambrose Heal collection , and his notes on the makers are handwritten on the backing. As many of these were written subsequent to “The London Goldsmiths 1200 —1800” they form a valuable addition to that work.
A word of caution. The search can be erratic at times and having found a card once - save the image . The same procedure does not always work !
Also the site is sometimes very slow and a search at two in the morning is probably the best option.
For those wanting a quick peek at the 711 goldsmiths cards try
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... &x=13&y=13
.