Set of 3 small communion souvenir cards, hand-painted celluloid with flowers and chalices. Their edges are nicely scalloped. They date from the 1900s.
Celluloid has existed since the 189th century. In 1870, John and his brother Isaiah mixed cellulose nitrate and camphor, obtained celluloid, and patented it. At the time, it was produced by grinding tissue paper, mixing it with nitric acid and sulfuric acid to make cellulose nitrate, which was then "plasticized" by adding camphor (extracted from the camphor tree), pigments, and alcohol.
Celluloid was widely used for making knife handles, piano keys, hair clips, combs, corsets, writing pens, hard collars or cuffs, billiard balls, toys (dolls like the famous "bathers" in celluloid from Nobel, PetitNobel and Convert companies), as well as for veneering curved surfaces, such as on accordions. However, its high flammability always made its production and use perilous, leading to its decline with the advent of new plastics.
Celluloid was long used for making table tennis balls, or in jewelry to imitate certain precious materials (mother-of-pearl, tortoise shell, pearls, etc.). The transparent sheets on which animated characters are painted in cartoons of traditional animation are still called "celluloids"—or cellos in industry jargon—despite the replacement of this material by cellulose triacetate.
Nowadays, celluloid is still used, notably for making guitar picks.
The small set offered is in very good condition and very charming.
Dimensions: 2 cards of 10 cm X 6.8 cm, 1 card of 9.5 cm X 6 cm.
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