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The Grout Bros. Automobile Company is connected with the New Home Sewing Machine Company. Grout and Thomas H. White, whose sons produced the Whtie Steam Car, were sewing machine business partners in the 1860s. Here is a bit of information on the New Home Sewing Machine Company.
The Virtual Steam Car Museum has some New Home Sewing Machine Company material. They reflect the Director's love of images and 19th century advertising.
There is no serious research yere, just eye candy.
TECHNICAL MATTER: If a card has a reverse, it is below the caption for that card.
Factory Views
Every sewing machine company needs a factory, and illustrating that factory was extremely important. Here are some images of the New Home Sewing Machine Company in Orange, MA.
This postcard/trade card was mailed on March 7, 1889. It carries a wonderful image of the factory.
This undated trade card (almost all are undated!) illustrates teh New Home Sewing Machine Company's factory in Orange, MA. It may have been printed shortly after a factory expansion.
The divided back of this post card dates it on or after 1907.
A view of the New Home Sewing Machine from the river, poost 1907.
Trade Cards
With the development of inexpensive lithography, 19th century manufacturers and their distributors used trade cards to promote their producrs.
Trade cards were extraordinarly cheap, and were printed by the millions.
A New Home Sewing Machine or a divorce!
A New Home Sewing Machine or a divorce, a second version! (ABOVE.) This card distributed by "S. E. Young & Co. Cram. Laconia, N.H." (BELOW.)
This Johnson, Clark, & Co. card illustrates a desperate man running after a wagon filled with New Home Sewing Machines. Perhaps he has been given an ultimatum by his wife. (See Above.)
This unusal double trade card carries a drama in four parts concerning a French Sewing Girl and a New Home Sewing Machine. Speaking of divorce!
This man is not risking a divorce! He is off to buy a New Home Sewing Machine! The lithographed front (ABOVE)carries the name of Johnson, Clark, Co. of New York, however the reverse (BELOW) carries the stamp of J. A. Westfall of Newton, N.J. and a leafe-shaped sticker. The White Sewing Machine company produced similar leaf-shaped cards.
This New Home Sewing Machine features racing cherubs (a new one is being hatched from an egg in the lower right corner) riding ordinary (high wheel) bicycles. There are six cycles, all with sewing machine seats. The New Home is winning the race. It is not clear how the cherubs steer their bicycles or how they pedal them. Ordinary bicycles were popular in the late 1870s and early 1880s, suggesting a date for this card.
This New Home Sewing Machine trade card carries an 1882 copyright date. Many cards carried humorous or romantic images.
The cards above and below are known as Hold to Light cards. When viewed with a strong light, the secret image appears in the moon (above) or completes the message (below).
This advertising post card carries a 1909 copyright date. By this time, the Grout Brothers Automobile Company had abandoned steam cars.
A New Home Sewing Machine brings calm and tranquility to every household!
This card is embossed with gold-colored ink, showing the happy lady and her new sewing machine.
The New Home Sewing Machine Company produced this advertising brochure, entitled Shakespere Boiled Down. The name Shakespeare is apparenlty spelled about 80 different ways according to a website I neglected to document. For those of you who should have read Shakespere in high school and/or college, here is your chance to catch up.
Yes, the Virtual Steam Car Museum has more New Home Sewing Machine Company trade cards. Email the director if you'd like to see more. Merry Christmas!
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Contact us if you have additional information about the New Home Sewing Machine Company or the Grout Brothers Automobile Company, or if you have questions.
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