“Grand Victory of the American National Beverage Over Its Foreign Rivals.”

Wilmington, North Carolina, likely mid-19th century. Single 6 x 9 ½ inch sheet. Folded and toned with some stains; excellent.. Advertisement for soda water from S.G. Northrop’s Fruit and Confectionery Store in Wilmington, North Carolina. Northrop’s used “Matthews’ Apparatus,” a mechanism for carbonating water invented by the “Soda Fountain King” John Matthews. The advertisement features an amusing lithograph of a woman in an American flag-themed dress spraying avatars of various alcoholic drinks with a hose of Matthews’ soda water. The lithograph is signed “Howland”.