Trade card for John Short, a jeweller and silversmith who dealt in a wide range of metal goods. Announced on his card are “Silver Pencil Cases, Toothpicks, Fruit Knives, Cigar Tubes, Gold & Silver Guards, Chains & Brequets…Neck chains, Earrings, Broaches, Pins &c., Spectacles of every description, Wedding & other Rings”. A few of these items appears as decorative illustrations around the outer-edge of the card, as well as several others objects such as candle-holder, scissors and a range of ornate bottles. Short also proudly advertises himself as a “warehouseman” with facilities in Birmingham and Sheffield, as well as his shop in London.

In a commission of 1884 inquiring into London’s livery companies it was noted that the shop and warehouse at 15a Lime Street were rented to Short for £120 by the Pewterers’ Company, of which he was not a member, from 1861. Indeed, in 1863, ‘The Goldsmiths’, jewellers’, silversmiths’, watchmakers’, opticians’, and cutlers’ directory’ recorded Short at the same address, while by 1880, The Post Office Directory lists the business as that of John Short & Son.