The Star Ice Cream Freezer, American Machine Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

"Star Freezer, American Machine Co., Phila. Thos. Hunter, lith., Phila."

This Victorian-era trade card features a group of winged infant children who are gathered around a goat-drawn wagon that's transporting a Star Ice Cream Freezer manufactured by the American Machine Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Depictions of winged infants--called putti or cherubs--were popular in Victorian and Edwardian advertisements and illustrations. These winged children are secular counterparts to biblical angels and mythological cupids, and their appearance doesn't necessarily signify religious devotion or romantic love. In this case, I believe that they were simply used in a lighthearted way to extol the virtues of the company's ice cream freezers. And they might have also appealed to the children who collected and pasted trade cards into scrapbook albums in the late nineteenth century.

For a list of "meritorious advantages" provided by this freezer, see the other side of the card: