The Sherman Clothes Wringer, Warranted Without Cog Wheels

Boston: By the author, 1860. Good. Small broadside, n. d. (1860s); 8 3/4 x 5 3/4; off-white stock printed in black and illustrated with a woodcut; a small nick to right edge and a tiny puncture to lower margin; a bit of age-toning and spotting; in about very good condition.A fabulous, mid-19th-century advertising piece, it showed a lady using the Sherman Wringer, dressed in a patriotic, American-Flag-pattern dress. Historically, laundry was a dreaded household chore in the 19th century, one which women did everything they could to avoid - including sending their washing out for others to do and hiring laundresses to come to their homes, when they could afford it. Those, who could not afford help needed a large variety of supplies - water, heating sources and vessels for boiling water, pails, tubs, dippers, wash-boards, soaps, drying areas, and so on. The Sherman Wringer promised to make everyone's life easier by being improved, compact, simple, durable, and without cog wheels "to cause it to turn hard, or to break and render the machine useless," like other wringers on the market. The broadside stated that the Sherman was far superior to Putnam's, Colby's, and many other competitors' contraptions and that it could fit both round and square tubs, making it universal.