Description
Eight chromolithographed trade cards for ice cream freezers, printed in color for American Machine Co. of Philadelphia and its dealers, the 1890s way of saying “summer is coming.” Cherubs haul a freezer tub in a goat cart, a little girl shares her dish with the family terrier, and a sleeping child dreams of ice cream carried by fairies. The cards are whole originals, front and back, so you can study how ice cream was sold and borrow the mood for menus, labels, signs and social posts.
Every card is trimmed to its edge, with nothing retouched or enlarged. The printed backs are included too: period type, price lists and engravings of the freezers. This pack also includes twenty-six cutouts as a separate download: freezer engravings and freezer tubs, a goat cart carrying a freezer, cherubs and fairies with ice cream, a girl feeding her dog, ice chippers, sparrows and a pouting child in a red hat, each with the trade card it came from.
The cards
- 1. “I Dream – Ice Cream” – a child asleep under a patchwork quilt while fairies carry a sundae dish through the air
- 2. Girl and terrier – a girl in a red dress feeds ice cream to her dog from a chair; the back shows the Lightning, Gem and Blizzard freezers
- 3. Gem freezer, cherubs with a fan – cherubs crack ice and turn the tub among reeds and palms
- 4. American Machine Co., cherubs with shields – a frolic of winged children around the freezer tub
- 5. Star freezer, goat cart – cherubs and goats hauling a freezer through a garden
- 6. The Gem Freezer – a girl in a pale blue dress feeding her doll, with a freezer at her feet
- 7. American Machine Co.’s ice cream freezers – reeds, birds and a framed portrait beside a pond
- 8. White Mountain freezer – a child in a red hat resting her chin in her hands
Cutouts
- Gem freezer – engraving from the back of a card
- Blizzard freezer – engraving from the back of a card
