Wholesale trade catalog printed for florist company Reed and Keller of 122 West 25th Street, New York, New York. Back and front cover of catalog mentions the company exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. Back cover references an innovation award given by a board of international judges at the exposition. Wholesale catalog includes images and prices for ornamental wire designs for cut flowers, baskets, pots, metal designs, immortelles, rustic furniture, sprayers and other supplies.
Label Text:
Set pieces or set designs were among the most popular floral arrangements in the second half of the nineteenth century. The term set piece is a usually applied to designs in a wide variety of forms, which are often symbolic in character. Typical of the Victorian style, these designs were elaborate and massive. Set pieces were usually made up on wire frames in the desired shape, which acted as a foundation for the floral arrangement. Commercially produced, heavy-gaged wire frames, fabricated from either plain or copper-plated wire, became available for flower arrangements between 1860 and 1864. From the time they were introduced to the early 1900s, wire flower frame foundations for elaborate set piece designs were the basis of the retail floral industry. Wire flower frames were the product of the thriving iron industry and the ability to mass produce, which developed during the Industrial Revolution. They were constructed and sold by wire crafters who operated their own wirework businesses or by the wholesalers of florist supplies. Companies such as Cokely’s, Kellogg’s, Reed & Keller, and James Rasjik, among others were key to the development of these designs into increasingly novel shapes made available to a widespread audience. Hundreds of designs of floral frames were available and shown in catalogs, which were essential to success of wire works and their distribution. Flower frames designs were ordered for special celebrations, holidays, weddings, and funerals.
