ADVERTISING CARD FOR PARKINSON’S REFRESHMENT GARDEN IN PHILADELPHIA

ADVERTISING CARD FOR PARKINSON’S REFRESHMENT GARDEN IN PHILADELPHIA

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$65.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1268-1123

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This is a rare pre-Civil War advertising card for Parkinson’s, the famous Chestnut Street confectionery, ice cream saloon and pleasure garden. In its day it was probably the best-known refreshment house in America. The card measures 4.25” x 6.5”.

On the front is a fine wood engraving showing the establishment’s two buildings on Chestnut Street. Above it runs the boast “The most magnificent Establishment in this Country.” Below it reads “PARKINSON’S REFRESHMENT GARDEN, No. 311 Chestnut St. above 10th, (North Side.) PHILADELPHIA.” The printer’s imprint, “Clarkson, Pr. 26 So. 3d St.,” is at the bottom.

The reverse features a ruled border that frames “Opinions of the Public Press,” reprinted from the Daily Sun of May 31, 1853. It praises “Parkinson’s Saloons and Garden” as the city’s equal to the Wissahickon among the “artificial improvements” of Philadelphia. It describes richly furnished saloons; creams, ices and confections “renowned for their delicacy”; and extensive gardens with walks, flower beds, shade trees, a “magnificent fountain,” little pavilions and music from the balcony. It closes by suggesting Parkinson “should have a statue dedicated to him.” The writer also nods to Shakespeare’s “moralizing Jacques” from As You Like It.

This card introduces us to a Philadelphia food dynasty. The Parkinsons are among the most important names in early American confectionery. Eleanor Parkinson wrote The Complete Confectioner (1844), and her son James W. Parkinson became a nationally known caterer and confectioner. Philadelphia was then the ice cream capital of America; “Philadelphia-style” ice cream still bears its name. Before the war, “saloon” meant a refined parlor, not a bar. Ice cream saloons and refreshment gardens were among the few respectable public places where women and families could gather and dine. The address “No. 311 Chestnut St. above 10th” uses Philadelphia’s old street numbering, which the city replaced in the late 1850s with the block system still in use today. Opened in 1852, it enjoyed immense popularity and hosted historic culinary milestones in the 1850s—including a legendary 17-course, $1,000 cook-off against New York's famous Delmonico's—the onset of the American Civil War and shifting commercial developments along Chestnut Street ultimately led to its closure in the early 1860s.

In very good condition, with clean, crisp printing on both sides. There are a few small spots front and back. Corners are good and there are no folds. [jet] [ph:L]

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