Wood's Havesting Machinery Unusual Pinwheel Advertisement together with Its 1871 Catalogue

Boston: Rand Avery & Co., 1871. Circa 1870, re the ad, and 1871 for the catalogue. The cicular advertisement , 11.5 inches in diameter, has eight sliced compartments with captions speaking the general virtues of the companies' products. The illustrations, intended to appeal with light humor caricature, are noteworthy for, among other things, an early depiction of bicycles! The 56 page catalogue from 1871 is not overly scarce, unlike the ad, but is included to provide background for the singular piece of ephemera. The Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Company was around from 1865 to 1924. Fires bedeviled both this company and the ad's printer, Rand Avery & Co. of Boston, which suffered devastating fires in 1870 and 1872, respectively. The ad , while mostly intact, is somewhat charred, and this may mean that it is a survivor, somehow, from one of these fires. (Inventory #: 001933)