Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: penny-farthing

"F. S. Andrew & Co.'s Markets. Best meals. Lowest prices." A Victorian-era trade card with an Easter theme for F. S. Andrew & Co.'s Markets, which were located in New Haven, Connecticut. See the History of the City of New Haven to the Present Time (1887), pp. 609-10, for information about Frank S. Andrew and his company and p. 611 for a portrait of Andrew . For other imaginative Victorian illustrations of improbable bicycles, see The Standard Rotary Shuttle Sewing Machine and Flowery Bicycle Calling Card .

"The 'Standard,' our name is our motto. 2000 turns in a minute, clear the track! Standard Rotary Shuttle. Compliments of the Standard Sewing Machine Co., Cleveland, O. The Standard Rotary Shuttle Sewing Machine, the lightest, quietest, swiftest running machine in the world. ________, agent. Johns & Co. Lith., Cleveland, O." In the illustration on this nineteenth-century advertising trade card, the winner of the bike race is riding a high-wheel bicycle--or " penny-farthing "--that was somehow constructed using a giant version of one of the Standard Sewing Machine Company's rotary shuttles as one of the wheels. The cyclist following the winner wasn't using a rotary-shuttle wheel, so it's not surprising that he is falling flat on his face. The obvious superiority of the winner's equipment hasn't been lost on the three immaculately dressed women and the young girl, all of whom have been watching the race. They're all staring intently at the winning cyclist, and one woman even appears to be waving her handkerchief at him. I suspect that all of the women and perhaps even the girl went out and purchased a Standard rotary shuttle sewing machine as soon as the race was over.