Johnson’s Polishing Wax Advertisement (Electric Floor Polisher Rental), The Saturday Evening Post, November 12, 1927 🇺🇸✨🏡

This is a top-shelf, original full-page advertisement from The Saturday Evening Post, definitively dated November 12, 1927.

The ad is classified as a primary source document of American technological adoption and domestic labor culture during the height of the "Roaring Twenties."

Its value is secured by the colorful illustration and the text promoting the rental service for the Johnson Electric Floor Polisher, documenting the early introduction of electric convenience into the middle-class home.

2. About the Artwork/Book/Object 📖✍️✨ The full-color advertisement promotes Johnson’s Polishing Wax and the key innovation: the Johnson Electric Floor Polisher. The central headline, "yes I’ve Rented the Johnson Electric Floor Polisher it’s a wonder!," emphasizes the accessibility of the technology through rental, a crucial market strategy of the time.

The copy describes the polisher as banishing "messy pails and rags," allowing housewives to wax every floor "without stooping, kneeling or even soiling your hands" . This content explicitly details the product's function as a labor-saving device designed to modernize the traditional duties of housekeeping. The image features two fashionably dressed women captivated by the store display of the polisher and Johnson's wax products.

3. About the Artist/Author/Maker ✍️🏛️ The advertisement was commissioned by S. C. Johnson & Son of Racine, Wisconsin, known today as SC Johnson. Founded in 1886 by Samuel Curtis Johnson, the company established itself as "The Floor Finishing Authorities" .

The company pioneered wax-based products for furniture and floors, with the introduction of the electric polisher representing a major moment of technological diversification in the company’s history. The ad’s illustration style is characteristic of the commercial art of the late 1920s, utilizing a bright color palette and stylized figures that embody the era's optimism.

4. Historical/Political Era Context 🌍🕰️📜 This advertisement originates from November 1927, at the apex of the "Jazz Age." The period was defined by economic prosperity, rapid urbanization, and a consumer revolution driven by the mass availability of installment plans and affordable manufactured goods.

The electric floor polisher represents the broader trend of electrification that fundamentally transformed domestic life, moving tasks from heavy manual labor to mechanized efficiency. The promise of saving inconvenience and expense was a powerful selling point that directly appealed to the increasing value placed on women's time, just two years before the onset of the Great Depression. The ad is a time capsule of pre-Depression consumer confidence and technological enthusiasm.

5. The Ideal Collector 💡🧐🏛️ This historical document is an essential acquisition for a curator of 20th-Century Domestic Technology, American Advertising History, and Women’s Studies Ephemera.

It is ideally suited for a collector who specializes in pre-Depression consumer culture or the documentation of American home labor advancements. The item possesses a clear historical pedigree and is a rare, tangible record of the market's attempt to use technology to appeal to the modern woman of the late 1920s.

6. Value & Rarity 💎✨🏛️ This original magazine page is 98 years old, having survived the fragility and high discard rate of period periodicals, including the economic upheaval of the Great Depression that followed its publication.

Its Bibliographical Scarcity is moderate for The Saturday Evening Post, but its rarity is significantly enhanced by the specific, high-value content detailing the electric polisher rental service, a key moment in the history of domestic technology. The value is secured by its Historical Context Premium as a specialized piece of Roaring Twenties Americana.

7. Condition 🔎📚✨ The physical condition has been assessed directly from the provided high-resolution photography. The object is deemed to be in Very Good Vintage Condition, professionally separated from its source publication.

• Media: The ad is a full-page, full-color magazine insert, mounted on cardboard.

• Content Integrity: The text and color illustration are complete and legible, with the bright color palette of the 1920s retaining good vibrancy.

• Handwriting: The handwritten date "Saturday Evening Post Nov. 12, 1927" is visible on the backing board, which is a key authentication detail.

• Imperfections: A small, yellow sticker with a price notation is visible in the top corner, a piece of secondary historical ephemera.

8. Fun Facts & Unique Features 🤓📜🤩

• Electric Polisher Rental: The rental model, highlighted by the massive headline, was common for early, expensive electrical appliances, allowing manufacturers to introduce the technology to a wider market before mass affordability was achieved.

• The "Flapper" Aesthetic: The two women in the illustration are dressed in the long fur-trimmed coats, cloche hats, and shorter hemlines that defined the sophisticated "flapper" look of the late 1920s.

• S. C. Johnson Expansion: S. C. Johnson & Son, the manufacturer, had already established its Canadian factory in Brantford, demonstrating its international reach even before the Great Depression.

• Marketing Promise: The ad promises that waxed floors "aren't half the trouble to keep clean when they're waxed," directly linking the use of the product to decreased expense and effort year after year.

9. Supporting Information 🏷️📦💰

• Object Type: Historical Advertisement (Magazine Insert)

• Title: yes I’ve Rented the Johnson Electric Floor Polisher, it’s a wonder!

• Advertiser: S. C. Johnson & Son

• Source Publication: The Saturday Evening Post

• Year/Period: November 12, 1927 (The Roaring Twenties)

• Place of Origin: Racine, Wisconsin / USA

• Format/Binding: Single-page Color Print Ad

• Key Contents: Electric Floor Polisher Rental; Johnson's Polishing Wax.