c. 1890s Pre-1901, J.I. Case Theshing Machine Co. Full-Color Advertising Sign with a Highly Detailed Illustration of one of the company’s steam powered tractors Lithographed on its Embossed 20” x 13.75” Tin surfaces, by The Tuscarora Advertising Co., Very Fine.
This impressive colorful Embossed Tin Advertising Sign measures 20” x 13.75” printed by the Tuscarora Co., Coshocton, Ohio. A sign explicitly marked "The Tuscarora Advertising Co." can only date to the window between roughly 1887 and is Pre-1901. The colorful illustrated Steam Powered Tractor shows great detail with every rivet, spoke and valve, set against a watercolor-style rural farm background. The illustration’s colors and linework are exceptionally well-preserved for its age, as is the embossing on the tin. Text in the top right hand corner reads, “Side Crank -- Traction Engine -- Spring Mounted”. The tractor’s design is reminiscent of a late 19th century locomotive, which is not surprising as the J.I. Case Company was one of the largest American steam engine manufacturers of that period. Their 1905 Case 150 HP model Traction Engine even being called the “Road Locomotive”. Matted over the outer margin edges, some wear from display and previous mounting with some small scatted surface color scrapes, yet attractive for display. Rare and desirable.
This is a tin lithographed advertising sign for the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. of Racine, Wisconsin, featuring a Case steam traction engine (the company's early self-propelled steam tractors used to power threshing rigs in the field). Signs like this were produced as point-of-sale/dealer advertising, meant to hang in implement dealerships, feed stores, or hardware shops.

Case didn't produce its first steam traction engine until 1878, so a Tuscarora-era produced sign (1887-1901) depicting one fits comfortably within the company's early steam-engine advertising period, likely produced to promote Case's traction engines in the years just before or around 1900, Case didn't produce its first steam traction engine until 1878, so a Tuscarora-era sign (1887-1901) Pre-1901, when Case was becoming the world's largest steam engine manufacturer.

J.I. Case founded the firm in 1842; by 1878 the company had begun building self-propelled steam traction engines, and by the 1880s Case was the world's largest steam engine manufacturer, eventually building over 30,000 of them before the shift to gas tractors. The company's "Old Abe" eagle-on-a-globe trademark (adopted 1865) is the more commonly seen Case advertising image, a sign centered on a steam traction engine itself (rather than the eagle logo) is a somewhat scarcer subject.

Signs of this exact description - embossed tin litho, steam traction engine imagery - were typically produced in the 1900s-1910s, during the peak years of Case's steam engine production before gas tractors took over in the 1920s. The major tin litho advertising printers of that era working for farm equipment makers were based in Coshocton, Ohio - firms like Norton Bros., The Meek Company, and The Tuscarora Advertising Co. all produced this style of embossed farm-machinery signage.