Fly Paper - Marshall-Wells

A little history lesson about the Marshall-Wells Hardware Company of Duluth, Minnesota.

Established in March of 1893 when Albert Morley Marshall acquired Aurthur B. Chapin's interest in Chapin-Wells Hardware. A wide variety of hardware was sold by the company, but my primary interest was piqued when I discovered the piece of billhead illustrated below, and I've displayed it as two pieces. The primary reason for picturing it in two pieces, the billheader, and the lower portion of the document itself is because of it's size. It measures 8 1/2 by 13 3/4's inches high - much too large to scan in one piece, and the detail would be extremely hard to see if I were to display it in it's entirety.

 

  
This piece was originally part of a ledger from the C. W. Rank & Company of Virginia, City, Montana. There were several other pieces of Marshall-Wells billhead in this ledger, but this one listed primarily fishing tackle, so therefore - that's the reason for my putting my rendition of four trout flies on this piece.

The ledger contained bills for the year 1904. The form was produced in 1903, printed in the upper left hand corner of the form itself: Form 9. 40M 2-9-03.  I find it a bit strange that there is also a printed reference on the right side which says: PLEASE MENTION DATE OF THIS INVOICE IF CLAIM IS MADE FOR SHORTAGE OR ERROR.

Above that is what I assume to be a date: 4-1. The reason I'm making that assumption is beside the words Your Order is the date 2-5.

I had to have a bit of help with the Brown Hackle Archer Q 6 HKS line item, and Joel DeJong who has a blog called Another Year on the Fly, pointed me in the right direction. He also has a web site, appropriately named Hex Fishing.  He suggested I could probably take liberties with the Brown Hackle Archer, so I did.

I also discovered a fishing tackle history site this morning called Fishing for History: The History of Fishing and Fishing Tackle. I have yet to explore it, but it appears to have just what I've been looking for in the way of advertising images.

Uneeda Biscuits - School Days

My first OLD PAPER of 2013.

Back in June of 2009, I depicted the Uneeda Biscuit Boy on a piece of National Biscuit Company billhead from the same address as this piece. At the time, I was unconcerned about the underlying printing on the form interfering with my image. That was then - this is now.

I'm beginning to be more picky about what stays and what gets erased. before I start. This one was complicated, but since it is good paper (it even has a NBC watermark) I can reinforce the paper with archival repair tape and still have enough surface left to lay the art work on it where it needs to be.

I've done two pieces of NBC paper with the Uneeda Biscuit boy on them, although the second was on NBC letterhead. This piece of billhead was actually 8 1/2 X 13 inches originally. Business owners would trim the billhead so as to conserve on paper, saving the trimmed portion for other uses.

The piece is dated 9-11-06. All of the baked products, including the Uneeda Biscuits, were produced on site. I've given the history of the building in a previous post with an image of Zu-Zu the clown, who was the advertising icon for another NBC product - Ginger Snaps.

The box itself is the basic image that Frederick Stanley (the artist who painted the original Uneeda Biscuit Boy) had to work with. There is a description of the painting HERE, at Robert Edward Auctions, which also describes the box that he had to create separately and affix to the painting.

Three Sisters - Memories are Made of This

 

  

 

My first post of the new year. I have no idea how many pieces of mail art I actually posted in 2012, but it wasn't as many as I would have liked. Life got in the way more than once.

These three sisters of mine gave me a whole lot of memories this past year, and then topped it off with some wonderful reminders during the Christmas Season.

The time we spent at the 5 Spot in the Queen Anne district of Seattle was one of the highlights.

It really doesn't get much better than that.

For all of you who are still faithfully following me in my little corner of the Blogosphere, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope you are all as blessed as I've been - with family.