Pieces of the Past: New Home Sewing Machine Co. II

Continuing to delve into my scrapbook of sewing machine Victorian trade cards, here are some more advertising images for New Home sewing machines.  (New Home Sewing Machine Co. I)

Another common Victorian trade card theme was to depict the item being advertised being used as a completely different object.  In this card, the sewing machine is incorporated into a high-wheeled bicycle.

The Light-Running 
New Home Sewing Machine
Johnson, Clark & Co.
Orange, Mass.

An interesting historical note - bicycles were all the rage during the last quarter of the 19th century, and the first bicycle factory was started by a fellow who gave up sewing machine production to manufacture bicycles.

New Home sewing machine being used for ice skating!

Chariot a la New Home sewing machine.

Yet another strategy employed by Victorian trade cards involved a blissful or idyllic lifestyle associated with the product being advertised.

Doesn't every young girl dream of a New Home sewing machine?

La Maquina de Coser New Home De Movimiento
Suave Y Ligera.

A common English language card, I happened to also find this one in Spanish.  Roughly translated it says the New Home sewing machine is smooth and light-running.

These two cards have copyright dates from the early 1880s.  Don't you love the idealized version of life suggested when one owns a New Home sewing machine?

  

One could probably write volumes analyzing the images on these cards.  I enjoy the history, the art work and the glimpses of everyday life from over a century ago!