The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table - Coffee, Cards, and Corporations

On the Ace of Spades of my Old Masters Coffee playing card deck,  I noticed a striking marketing slogan: "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table". 

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
Old Master Coffee
Ace of Spades

I looked online and learned that "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" is a collection of essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., originally serialized in The Atlantic Monthly in 1857-1858 and published as a book in 1859. 

A Book by Oliver Wendell Homes - 1859

The work is a series of conversations at a Boston boarding house, where the "Autocrat" (the narrator) leads discussions on various topics, blending humor, philosophy, and social commentary, often concluding each essay with a poem. 

The conversations are between a narrator (the Autocrat) and other residents, identified by their professions or table locations (e.g., "the Schoolmistress," "the Young Man").  It is a witty and philosophical discussion on life, conversation, science, and American culture, filled with clever sayings. 

What's the Connection with Playing Cards?

The Bour Company was a coffee and spice business based in Toledo, Ohio, which operated from the late 19th to early 20th century. They were known for superior coffee and great branding such as "Old Master Coffee".  I think the "Old Master" references the recognized great artists of old and suggests that their coffee is a similarly masterful creation. The picture on their advertising and on the back of the cards and the jokers is a portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher, a painting by German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer.

 Hieronymus Holzschuher
Back of a Bour Old Master Deck

Albrecht Dürer Painting - 1526

 My Two Decks of Old Master Cards.  I have two promotional decks of cards for Old Master Coffee each of which mentions  on the Ace of Spades that it is  "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table".

Two Old Master Coffee Aces of Spades

The decks have no obvious copyright date but there is a clue in the fine print on these two aces of spades.  The wider ace on the left has a tiny S followed by a series of numbers (which are meaningless): The narrower ace on the right has a tiny M followed by some more meaningless numbers.

The wider deck came in a leather case and is from the Bour Company. Both Blodgett-Beckley and Bour are in Toledo Ohio.

I've worked at figuring the date of these decks and about these companies.  Several factors point to the leather deck having come first. It's wider, it's in a leather case, and the Bour Company predates the Blodgett-Beckley Co. The Blodgett-Beckley Co. emerged from The Bour Company, a spice/coffee business started in the 1870s, with Albro Blodgett and S.W. Beckley taking over the Bour interests around 1909-1910, changing the name to Blodgett-Beckley Co. in 1921, and becoming known for "Old Master Coffee."

Since the decks are produced by USPCC (The US Playing Card Company) produced deck (like Bicycle and Congress brands), I can us charts (such as this one from Joseph Pierson's website) that indicate what year a deck was published based on the letter of the fine print on the ace of spades (The rest of the fine print is according to everyone who studies such things: meaningless!).  

USPCC Dates Chart from
Joseph's BicycleCards.org website

Because USPCC has been making cards for a long time and there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, notice the letters get reused.  So there's still some judgement involved. So the S on the wider deck indicates in this case either 1913 or 1933 (or some other year in an era that would make no sense).  The M indicates either 1909 or 1930. My best guess:

-     The wide deck in the leather case with an S on the ace: 1913

-    The narrow deck in the cardboard case with an M on the ace: 1930

The Bour Company marketed
Old Masters Coffee as
 "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"

Old Master Coffee - Wide Deck

The narrow deck came in a cardboard box and is from Blodgett-Beckley Co which touts itself as the Master Makers of Coffee.  

Old Master Coffee - Narrow Deck

What Became of the Marketing Phrase?

The Autocrat brand lives on today as a coffee syrup marketed by the Finlay Extracts company. Background: The Autocrat coffee company was established in 1895 as Brownell & Field, was known for its coffee syrup and coffee, was named by Frank O. Field, founder of Fields.  The Autocrat coffee syrup company, started making syrup in the 1930s in Rhode Island.  

Interestingly enough, Autocrat collaborated with Coffee Connection to invent Frappuccino in 1992. In 1994, Starbucks acquired all the 23 Coffee Connection locations, along with the trademark rights to the "Frappuccino" name

What is not clear to me is how the Autocrat named went from  Blodgett and Beckley in Toledo, Ohio to the Findlay in Rhode Island, Anyone?

BTW, I am not the only one who seems interested in this question. Note this article about Old Master Brews.  And this Instagram post on the history of Coffee Milk.  

Other interesting articles about cards, jokers, and history:

Advertising Decks - How Customized?
Jokers with Fighters with Swords, Daggers, Spears, Fists

• Glamour Girl Jokers
• Bicycle Jokers
• Card & Joker Collecting Clubs & Resources
• My System for Categorizing Jokers
• Art Traditional Jokers
• The First Joker?
• Congress Matching Jokers from ~1900
• Transformation Decks