Dogs for Defense - 1943 - 200th post

I'm leading this one off with the finished image. This is a manila envelope, 8 1/2 " by just over 11", and has a  1 1/2 cent Martha Washington stamp affixed. The stamp is postmarked Grand Central Annex, New York, N. Y. There is no date stamp, but the year is 1943.

This envelope is addressed to Forrest Carville, Burns, Mont. The contents are even more interesting, but I'll get to that in a moment. Forrest & Edna Carville lived Northwest of Burns near Savage. They are listed as being there in 1909, and probably homesteaded, although I don't know if that can be verified. I'm checking on that. There should be property records that would indicate either a 160 Acre homestead, or if they both filed, it could possibly have been 320 Acres. Regardless, they lived there until 1961, when Forrest died. Edna remained until she died in 1991. They had no children. If you don't know what Eastern Montana is or was like, I can tell you: They were pretty isolated, probably 15 or twenty miles from the nearest General Store.

Although the embossed seal in the lower left corner of the certificate is not really visible, I can tell you what it says: Quartermaster General of the U. S. Army, OFFICIAL across the center of the seal, and War Dept. across the bottom. I don't know whether Forrest donated a dog, or if the dog they did donate was named Puppie. I have never seen anything like this, and I found it in an antique shop in Glendive, MT. I paid a whole dollar for it - and didn't open it until I was back home.

This is the other piece of smaller paper that was in the envelope, and it repeats the corner card which appear in the upper left hand corner on the envelope.

I will be offering this at the Western Heritage Artist show during Western Art Week next month, with a portion of the proceeds to support the Montana Wounded Warriors and the Wounded Warriors Project.

I'm hoping that All three pieces will find a new home.

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.

Miles City Fire Engine, No. 1

I have taken photographs of the No. 1 Miles City Fire Engine, Seagrave build number 16667. It is slowly being restored. The radiator badge was in fine shape. It is cloisonné, and truly the shining crown to a piece of fire apparatus that's almost a hundred years old. The monogram above the emblem is my rendition of what I think the hood lettering looks like. It is so terribly faded that it was hard to determine what it originally looked like.

Above is a photograph of the Miles City Monogram on the hood. It is surrounded by painted filigree scroll work.

Above is a factory photograph of a 1916 Seagrave Chemical Motor Fire Apparatus with chain drive. This is what the Miles City engine looked like - sort of. The engine in the photograph was built for the city of Coshocton, Ohio, as their No. 2 engine. Apparently, Coshocton could afford the extra-special adornment of gold leaf, filigree and chrome. The Miles City Number 1 didn't get the royal treatment. I'd like to see the Miles City engine look like this one!

I am not done with this little project just yet. I have the carbon copy response to this letter which was attached to the piece of letterhead pictured at the top with a small pin - early paper clip if you will. I have contacted the Hall of Flame Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, in hopes of obtaining information they may have about the Miles City Engine. I've been told that the Museum has the Painter's Log for the Seagrave Company. The Painter's Log and the Build Number will tell me just when the Miles City engine left the factory, which is something I'd like to be able to tell a patron who decides they have to have this old piece of paper and a little piece of early Montana History on the side.

An update to the story: I spoke with the Curator of the Hall of Flame Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, Peter Molloy this afternoon, and he was able to tell me that the Miles City Number 1 fire engine was painted on January 18th, 1917. He was also able to point me to another Museum in Michigan, that may have a photograph of the Miles City engine. Peter explained to me that every truck that left the Seagrave factory was photographed in a manner similar to the photo above. These were large glass plate negatives which Seagrave at some point in time parted with, as they had no reason to keep documentation for engines they built over Seventy years ago if not more. This was done to document not only the truck itself, but also the apparatus that was included as part of the sales package. I will also be able to determine (hopefully) what  color scheme was used.

Seagrave Build No. 16667

 

A work in progress. More later for those of you still hanging around.