When children show up in advertising for heavy durable goods like farm equipment, they’re there for a reason. Adriance, Platt & Co. communicated a message of trust and confidence with this image, in which four children are entrusted to their faithful horse to carry them safely across a stream. Likewise, the farmer should trust Adriance equipment to be dependable and durable.
Dating to 1889, this chromolithograph promoted the trademarked line of Buckeye, Adriance and Triumph horse-drawn farm machinery. In the background are scenes showing the company’s mowers, grain binders and reapers.
John P. Adriance began making harvesting machines in Worchester, Mass., in 1854. He moved to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1857, and began manufacturing the Buckeye mower and reaper. The company name was changed to Adriance, Platt & Co. as early as 1866. In 1867, he was successful in attaching a self-raker to the Buckeye reaper. The name “Buckeye” is a trademark given to the mowing machine, which first successfully introduced two driving-wheels and a doublejointed folding cutter bar. In 1889, Adriance introduced a lighter and more compact rear-discharge harvester and binder (illustrated in a vignette in the poster’s lower left corner).
The company was bought out by the Moline Plow Co., Moline, Ill., in 1913 and eventually became part of the Minneapolis-Moline Co.FC
Grateful acknowledgement is given to David Schnakenberg, who contributed this image from his collection of pre-1910 chromolithographs of farm machinery advertising. For more information, contact him at 10108 Tamarack Dr., Vienna, VA 22182; (703) 938-8606; dschnakenberg@verizon.net; view the Schnakenberg Collection at http://stores.ebay.com/farm-machinery-advertising-art
To submit a vintage advertisement for possible publication, send it to: Iron Age Ads, Farm Collector, 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609; or submit high-quality digital images by e-mail: editor@farmcollector.com
