Maker - Golden Bell

How'm I doing, Valentine. Words fail me at a time like this, But here's a SIGN you just can't miss.

4" x 5" (5" x 7" opened)
dated 1945
Modified French Fold
made in USA
by Golden Bell
marked: P-7115-B

Golden Bell was a line of greeting cards published by Gartner and Bender. They were located at 1104 S. Wabash in Chicago, Il in the 1940s. This appears to be when the line were most active. Gartner and Bender had earlier in the century (during the 1910s) published many postcards. 

The company was featured in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1947 titled The Artist in Social Communication.  

“This showing is planned to attract into the field of greeting card art the highest type of artist for the benefit of the greeting card industry and the consuming public”, according to explanation from Robert J. Bender, president of Gartner and Bender. “It was also designed to dramatize and vivify the high skills of the greeting card artist. The show will travel around the country, and is being made available to art schools, colleges and high school art departments, and museums.”

I have not been able to find exact dates for the beginning or end of the Golden Bell line. It was in the 1940s that Gartner and Bender ran ads for the line in Life magazine and garnered mentions in other publications so that does seem to be when the line was most active. 

Chalk me up for your Valentine It's just as plain as ABC That you're the Valentine for me!

8" x 3 3/8"
circa 1940s
Standing Fold-Out
by Golden Bell
made in USA
marked: P 7127-D
with a '5' in a circle above the GB Bell logo

I have just one thing to say, Please be my Valentine Today.

3 1/8" x 4 1/2"
circa 1930s, 1940s 
 Flat
 made in USA
 by Golden Bell
 marked: 7081c


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Artists known to have worked for Golden Bell:

• John Atherton
• Jan Balet
• Erica Gorecka-Egan
• Reginald Marsh
• Hans Moller
• Gregory Prestopino
• Lloyd Parsons
• Audrey Bueller
• Lucille Corcos
• Ben Shahan
• Lynd Ward
• Joanne Yee Wong

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Sources:

Brooklyn Museum Archives Records of the Department of Public Information Press Releases 1947-52, 10/12/1947