Stollwerck Trade Card Group 473, No 5

This trade card is from Stollwerck, a German chocolate company, and showcases the Regular and Chinese Veil-Tail Goldfish in an ornate planted aquarium. The back of the card highlights Chinese selective fish breeding, and unique goldfish features like scale color and fin shape. The card is a part of Stollwerck’s Animal Kingdom Collectors Album and advertises their ‘Women’s Crown Chocolate.’

Translation:

Group 473, No 5

Stollwerck’s Women’s Crown Chocolate
A delicately flavored chocolate of the finest quality.

Goldfish and Veil-Tail
The Chinese have been keeping a bream-like fish in small ponds and shallow basins for many centuries, selectively breeding variants, especially those with silver-shining and red-glimmering scales, as well as red ones without scales. They would split the fins of very young fish to produce individuals with flowing, magnificently developed veil-tails.

Additionally, they artificially altered the goldfish’s head shape, resulting in features such as pug-like muzzles and prominently bulging eyes. In some cases, even the eyes were forced upward from their original position. These fish became known as ‘telescope fish.’

High prices are paid for these peculiar appearances. Recently, these fish have also become widely kept in Europe.

For Stollwerck Animal Kingdom Collectors Album No.11