Circulars advertising Flora A. Jones "Blush of Roses" and soliciting women sales agents (4pcs)

An interesting group of ephemera related to an early form of mid-level marketing, cosmetics, and a woman inventor and entrepreneur. Four items sent to prospective sales agents for "Blush of Roses" and supplemental cosmetic products, including addresses from inventor and proprietor, Miss Flora A. Jones. Pink circular dated 1887 and addressed, "Dear Housekeeper Band..." Another item dated 1890 touts "Blush of Roses" as one of the most successful enterprises in South Bend, Indiana, "South Bend is a great Patent Medicine City, there being something over forty patent medicines manufactured here. You may imagine I am very proud to have the LARGEST BUSINESS in the city, and to know that the trade has come through my own hard work and exertions..." 

Jones marketed both a product and a persona that could appeal to the women she solicited to become sales agents. The content touts her as the inventor and sole proprietor of the business as much as it promotes the product, and she appeals to women to join her. She asks for an upfront investment of $36 and incentivizes getting others to sign up (and make the $36 investment), too: "For every agent you succeed in getting for me, who sends for one Dozen Blush of Roses, I will GIVE you half dozen..."

The pink leaf alludes to her earning in one day "more than I have earned in twelve long, weary weeks of school teaching," but there is no readily available outside biographical information about "Miss Flora A. Jones." Her patent was filed in 1882, and she built the company over several years, ultimately moving operations to South Bend from Ithaca in 1888—contemporary to the California Perfume Company (Avon), which began their door-to-door sales in 1886.