Advertising to Victorian Housewives and Domestic Workers: Thirteen (13) Items Marketing Products as Labor and Time Saving, Thrifty, Durable

United States, 1900. Very good. Minor flaws including light toning, short tears, letter folds.. A group of thirteen (13) items advertising products for the home, including labor and time saving appliances and cookware, dating between 1876 and c.1900. Together, they show how businesses at this time marketed their products to housewives, homemakers, and domestic workers. Common product traits include labor and time saving, long-lasting, and cost-effective. A nice window into women's work during this period, and their role not only as domestic workers but also as savvy shoppers. The items include:

Engraved receipt for tea purchase. Chicago, Sherer (truncated) & Parsons, Grocers and Tea Dealers, 1876. Engraved with illus. of tea caddy on left. Finished in ink manuscript. 3" by 8.5".

Humorous (?) illus. advertising card for kitchen ware depicting a baby sliding down a cheese grater towards an ax. N.pl., Henry Siefert, 1883. 4" by 2.75", printed in gold and red., with stamp of sales agent to head (Reynolds Bros. of W. Jackson).

Illustrated price list for Metropolis Tin-Ware Co., New York, 1888. Products include watering cans, infant baths, pails, kettles, wire domes to keep flies off food. Each illustrated with pricing. 4-panel folding price list (9" by 5.75" folded), one panel sometime detached.

Tongue-in-cheek advertisement for Glenwood Line stoves and cooking ranges, with advert for Vermont State Fair on front. New England, 1889. Bifolium (6" by 5.5") with illus. of product inside. Features humorous poem promoting the products to women. Excerpt: "Now all the world's matrons and maiden fair, for the Glenwood line of Ranges do declare, and when each maid marries and to housekeeping goes, her husband must furnish the Glenwood Stoves".

Two (2) blank illus. billheads for Wise & Co., Manufacturers of Wise's Steam Egg Poachers, Roasters and Bakers, Butler, Ohio, 1890. 5.5" by 8.25", with illus. of products at head, one printed in blue, the other in bright red. Labor and time saving products for homemakers.

Printed promotion for a free bread box with purchase of toilet soap. Philadelphia, Kirk, Foster & Co., 1890s. 10.25" by 6", with image of bread box on front, printed on coated blue paper.

Humorous illus. advertising card for "Granite Iron Ware" with color cartoon image of three old ladies gossiping on front captioned, "Granite Iron Ware is All the Gossip". St. Louis, Stephens Litho & Eng. Co., 1890s. 3" by 4.25", verso blank where sales agent would be printed or stamped.

Illus. advertising card for irons sold by A.B. Wood of New York, 1890s. 2.75" by 4.5", with description and illus. of image of product on front, and on back a humorous cartoon demonstrating the efficacy of the product (two men, one in wrinkled and the other in unwrinkled clothing).

Advertising card for Flour Safe & Sifter featuring baby on front. Syracuse, NY, Van Antwerp & Wilson, 1890s. Measures 4" by 2.75". Product illustrated on back.

Printed illus. advert for Thomas Wood & Co. "Queen Bee" brand Formosa tea. Measures 6" by 9", with promotional gift of tea canister advertised on right, illustrated. Boston, 1890s.

Printed illus. leaflet advertising Flanders' Mfg. Co. products. New York, 1890s. Bifolium (9.5" by 5.75"), with illus. of products. Labor- and time saving kitchen products such as tea urns, steam cookers, egg beaters.

Handwritten receipt on billhead for Hamblin & Russell Manufacturing Co., Worcester, MA, 1897. 6" by 8.5", finished in ink and pencil with ink stamp. Records a purchase of a coat hanger, bowl strainers, coal sieves, and more by who appears to be a manager of a general store.

Promotional postcard for Paramount brand aluminum kettles and cookware. 3.5" by 5.5", n.pl., c.1900. "Reduce your meat bills!" Addressed in pencil, un-stamped and not sent. "This card fully punched, with 98c in cash, entitles the bearer to a "Paramount" Windsor Kettle (Inventory #: 21000893)