Category: Perfume/Toiletries

Imperial Perfumery and B. S., Inc., New York

The letters “B. S.” embossed on the subject bottle stand for “Barber Supplies,” making the full name of the business “Imperial Perfumery and Barber Supplies, Inc.” A long-time New York City business located in the Bronx, its roots date back to the  mid-teens and a  partnership consisting of Arcady Gunzburg and Alex Weiss.

The Gunzburg and Weiss partnership was first listed in New York City’s 1914  directory with an address of 485 East 174th Street and the occupation “perfumers.” A year later. in 1915, the business began using the registered trade name “Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies.” Around the same time the company moved to the corner of Park Avenue and 176th Street where they’re listed at 4164 Park Avenue in the 1916 directory.

In 1917 Gunzburg and Weiss apparently dissolved their partnership at which  time Gunzurg, now in partnership with Louis Rasumoff, continued the business. Two years later, along with Paul Budgetti, they formed a corporation called the “Imperial Perfumery and Barber Supplies, Inc. A notice to that effect appeared in the August 21, 1919 edition of “The New York Tribune.”

Sometime between 1920 and 1922 the company moved again, this time to 2645 Webster Avenue. This September 11, 1922 advertisement found in a  weekly newsletter published by the Trestle Board of New York described the business as “Manufacturers of High Grade Toilet Preparations.”

In 1923 the company registered trademarked labels for two of their toilet preparations; “Imperial Lilac Toilet Water,” and “Imperial Bay Rum.” They also trademarked a label that included the phrase “Hygiene De La Tete.”

The company used the phrase “Hygiene De La Tete” (2nd label above) on the label of a product called Eau de Quinine which they packaged to closely resemble the packaging a long used product sold under the ED Pinaud name by  H & G Klotz & Company. The Klotz Company took exception claiming  that the casual purchaser will be deceived and misled, and mistake Imperial Perfume’s Eau de Quinine for Pinaud’s. According to the April 10, 1924 case of Klotz et al vs. Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies, Inc. (298 Fed. 174):

The product of defendant is contained in a bottle practically identical in appearance as to shape and size. The liquid contents are the same color in both. The neck labels of both bottles is a dull red, with white lettering. The labels on both are approximately of the same size and shape except that defendants label has rounded corners, while corners of plantiffs’ label are beveled. On plantiffs’label appears the basket of flowers. On defendant’s label is a wreath of flowers. Above the wreath on defendant’s label appear the words “Hygiene de la Tete.” Below the basket of flowers on plaintiffs label appear the words “Hygiene of the scalp.” The most prominent words on both labels are “Eau de Quinine.”

The argument is further supported by an ED Pinaud bottle also found in the Long Island bays.

Comparing the two its clear that there’s absolutely no difference in the size and shape of each bottle. With similar labels applied it would certainly be difficult  to distinguish one from the other. More on ED Pinaud and the Klotz Company can be found in another Post on this site.

ED. Pinaud

The court granted a preliminary injunction and as far as I can tell this put an end to  the matter.

That being said, the court’s decision didn’t put an end to the Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supplies, Inc., and in 1924 they moved to what would become their long-time home at 1077 Intervale Avenue, also in the Bronx. That same year they  trademarked a label for another new product, a dandruff remedy called “Imperial Elixir.”

Newspaper advertisements for Imperial Elixir began appearing in New York’s “Daily News” in November/December, 1925

The “Daily News” ads continued through much of 1926 and 1927 before disappearing completely by 1928. This March 2, 1927 advertisement suggests they continued to use the same bottle design previously used for Eau de Quinine.

While newspaper advertisements for their products vanished in the late 1920’s the business was still listed on Intervale Avenue in the late 1940’s at which time it appears both Gunzburg and Rasumoff were still involved.

The company apparently remained active in the Bronx throughout the 1950’s. Though directory information I can access is limited, I did find the company listed at 334 East 149th St. in 1953 and 250 East 150th St. in 1960.

As late as 1990 an item in the “Mount Vernon Argus” puts the Imperial Perfumery & Barber Supply, Inc. just north of the Bronx at 211 McLean Avenue in Yonkers, New York.

The bottle I found is machine-made,  6-3/4 inches tall and 2-3/8 inches in diameter. It includes “Inc.” in the embossed company name dating it no earlier than 1919 when the business incorporated. I suspect it was made in the 1920’s and contained either Eau de Quinine (early 1920’s) or Imperial Elixir (mid- late 1920’s).

Fiebert Frères, New York (Fiebert Brothers)

Research using the  “Fiebert Freres” name  embossed on the subject bottle did not reveal anything relevant to its origin or history. That being said, recognizing that “freres” is the French word for “brothers,” I gave  “Fiebert Brothers,” a shot and came up with a New York City based business that operated during the early 1900’s.  Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Fiebert Brothers sold barber supplies, hair tonics and perfumes.

One of Fiebert Brothers’ early products was a hair tonic called EAU DE MONDE, a name the company trade-marked in October, 1906, as evidenced by this item that appeared in the November 26th edition of “The Trademark Record.”

Later, in 1912, the company registered another trademark for a hair tonic. This one featured the portrait of a woman with flowing hair who was described as “fanciful.”

Marketing a product called “Eau De Monde” and others that were promoted with the image of a “fanciful” woman, its not a big leap to think the Fiebert’s were targeting a wealthy audience; one that around the turn of the century had a preference for French toiletries and perfumes. Any way you look at it, the name “Fiebert Freres” embossed on a bottle of  “Eau De Monde” projected a more sophisticated image than “Fiebert Brothers” did.

So, on that premise I went ahead and researched Fiebert Brothers and here’s what I found.

The roots of the business date back to 1889 when, according to U. S. Census records, Louis R. Fiebert, an Austrian immigrant who spoke Yiddish (not French) arrived in the United States. Throughout the 1890’s and up through 1903 he was listed in the New York City directories with the occupation “barber” at 144 Norfolk Street.

In 1904, Fiebert apparently partnered with Adolph (sometimes Adolf) Fiebert and established Fiebert Brothers. That year the company was listed in the NYC directory for the first time with an address on Madison Street and the occupation “perfumery.” In 1906 Fiebert Brothers moved to 106 Rivington Street, now listing their occupation as “barbers supplies.”

Two years later the Fiebert’s dissolved their partnership and went their separate ways.  It’s possible that the dissolution of the business was the result of Louis Fiebert declaring bankruptcy in February, 1909. The announcement appeared under the heading: “Trade Items” in the February 1st edition of the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer”

Louis R. Fiebert, of 140 Essex Street, New York, buyer and seller of perfumeries, has filed a petition in bankruptcy, with liabilities $11,200 and no assets.

Adolph Fiebert went on to establish another company nearby at 152 Rivington Street where he remained in business through the mid-teens.

Meanwhile, less than four months after being declared bankrupt, Louis Fiebert’s name appeared on a September 16th “New York Times” list of bankrupts that had been discharged suggesting that his financial problems were short-lived. Apparently able to retain the business, in 1910 Louis was listed as the sole proprietor of Fiebert Brothers,  now located in the adjacent building at 100 Rivington Street. That year, census records indicate the business was a family affair with both his wife, Clara, and son, Hugo, involved as well.

The company remained at 100 Rivington Street up through 1917 during which time, according to a February 16, 1914 item found in the “Passaic (N.J.) Daily News” they also established a sales agency across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Michael J. Colca, of this borough (Carlstadt N. J.) has taken the agency for the Fiebert Brothers celebrated perfumes and tonics and anticipates building a good business.

Fiebert Brothers moved to 40 Great Jones Street in 1917. “White Orr’s Reference Register” listed the company there as late as 1920.

Louis R. Fiebert passed away in June, 1923; his obituary appearing in the June 24th edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”

According to “streeteasy.com the building currently located at 100 Rivington Street was constructed in 1900 so it’s the same building that housed the business from approximately 1910 to 1917. Today it’s a rental building with 24 units. The commercial space at street level likely housed the business.

The adjacent building at 106 Rivington Street was also constructed in 1900 so its the building the business occupied from roughly 1906 to 1909. There are several steps down to what was likely the Fiebert business.

Coincidently, the building Fiebert Brothers moved to in 1917 at 40 Great Jones Street was also built in 1900 and remains to this day. According to street easy.com, it’s a 7-story, 7-unit co-op building. Like the others, the commercial space at street level likely housed the business.

The bottle I found is 7 inches tall and contains roughly 6 ounces. Blown in a mold it likely dates to the first 10 years or so of the business. Its shape certainly speaks to a hair tonic or something similar, maybe EAU DE MONDE?

Pond’s Extract

The Pond’s Extract story is thoroughly entwined with the shrub hamamelis virgiinics, or “witch hazel.” It’s early reputation as a medication was summarized like this in the January 3, 1906 edition of a publication called “Printers Ink.”

The shrub hamamelis virginics, popularly known as “witch hazel,” is native to North America alone, and found in quantities only in New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York State. Long before the Whiteman came it was a medicinal herb valued by the Indians, and when New England was settled the whites soon learned to value it too. For years “witch hazel” held a place among the home remedies, grandmother’s “yarbs” being prepared by boiling in tea kettles. In the 40’s this remedy was taken in hand by (Theron T.) Pond at Utica, N. Y., a place where the shrub was then found in abundance, and converted into a stable liquid through distillation and the use of a preservative. For distilled witch hazel spoils after a few days unless fixed with alcohol, the preservative used in Pond’s Extract.

Around the same time, an address by John V. Shoemaker, M.D., delivered April 26, 1905 before the Danbury Medical Society on the “Practical Value of Old Remedies,” provided this turn of  century view of witch hazel’s therapeutic value.

Witch Hazel, an excellent old-time remedy, has a well-defined range of usefulness within which it is without a rival. Externally and internally it is sedative and astringent. It is used as lotion and ointment in many diseases and injuries of the skin, in leg ulcer and varicose veins and varicocele.

The distilled extract of hamamelis is a valuable application to sprains and bruises. Hamamelis is very useful in checking epistaxis, bleeding sockets after the extraction of teeth, bleeding hemorrhoids and many other forms of hemorrhage. An ointment containing witch hazel is of service in burns, eczema, erysipelas, sunburn, seborrhea , acne, etc. A diluted fluid extract of hamamelis makes an effective lotion in hyperidrosis. A witch hazel lotion or ointment is an excellent application in fissure of the anus. When given internally this remedy exerts the same astringent and sedative action and is highly valued in the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhage from internal organs, purpura, hemorrhagic, varicose veins and ulcers and varicocele.

Today’s uses, while toned down quite a bit, still run along the same lines. According to webmd.com,

Applying witch hazel to the skin is the most common way it is used – and the safest.

Witch hazel may bring some relief from hemorrhoids or skin irritations and lessen minor bleeding. Witch hazel extracts contain antioxidant compounds that may protect against sunburn and aging from the sun.

Under the Pond’s name a witch hazel extract was on the market for just about 100 years from the mid 1840’s up through the late 1940’s.

So, with that as background the Pond’s Extract story begins with a man named Theron T. Pond. It’s a story that quite possibly may never have been told except for the actions of a quick thinking Hudson River boat captain. The details appeared in the November 3, 1830 edition of the “Poughkeepsie Journal.”

The Steam Boat North America. – By the following article it will be seen that an accident which might have led to serious consequences, occurred to the North America on Thursday… On her passage from New York to Albany, when opposite Sing Sing, it was observed that the boat rolled more than usual. The captain perceiving it, immediately ran an examination and found in the hold a considerable quantity of water, which he discovered to be increasing, notwithstanding the free use of the force pumps. He then resolved to avail himself of the first landing to secure the safety of his passengers. The water continuing to increase, he, without hesitation, ran her on the flats at Grassy Point a short distance below Stony Point. Shortly after the steam-boat  Gen. Jackson hove in sight, a signal being  made Capt. Van Wart came immediately alongside and received the passengers , and afterwards landed them at Newburgh, where they remained until the New Philadelphia arrived from New York, when they proceeded on to their respective destinations.

At a meeting of the passengers held on board the Gen. Jackson, a vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Capt. Benson and all the officers attached to the boat, for their skill, prudence, presence of mind and attention to the comfort of their passengers which was displayed on this occasion.

The vote of thanks was signed by 16 passengers, one of whom was Theron T. Pond.

Pond would go on to hold several unrelated occupations before beginning what would be a six-year stint  manufacturing and selling his witch hazel extract in Utica, New York.  Embossing on the subject bottle suggests he began its manufacture in 1846.

During this time it was advertised in newspapers under several different names. The first ad I can find appeared in a number of November, 1847 editions of the “New York Tribune” referring to it as “Pond’s Pain Destroyer.” By that time Pond had engaged several wholesale agents in New York City so the 1846 start date embossed on the bottle is certainly within the realm of possibility.

A year later newspaper advertisements added “Healing Extract,” sometimes “Vegetable Healing Extract,” to the title as evidenced by ads found in the “Buffalo Daily Republic” on May 25, 1848 and the “Fayetteville (N.C.) Weekly Observer” on January 23, 1849.

In 1852, six years after the introduction of his Pain Destroyer and Healing Extract, Pond passed away. At some point prior to his death he had become acquainted with Dr. Frederick Humphreys who some internet sources suggest was his personal physician. According to a story in the June, 1906 edition of “The Practical Druggist” Pond sold the rights for his healing extract to Humphreys. The story goes on to suggest that it was Humphreys who came up with the idea of adding alcohol as a way to stabilize the mixture.

Over fifty years ago Dr. Frederick Humphreys, whose reputation for his system of homeopathic medication is universal, removed to Utica, N.Y., where he practiced medicine successfully. Here he came in contact with a Dr. Pond, who interested him in the subject of manufacturing an extract of witch hazel. Pond already had an extract in the local field which had quite a reputation in the vicinity. Dr. Humphreys devised the means of fixing the virtues of this preparation, its ephemeral condition being its chief drawback. Dr. Humphreys bought the rights of manufacture and the name and entered into the systematic production of Pond’s Extract, retaining the name for its apparent trade-mark value.

Humphrey’s days as a physician also date back to sometime in the 1840’s as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in the May 22, 1849 edition of the “Buffalo Daily Republic.”

In 1855 Humphreys, then located in Auburn, New York, was selling a number of what he called Specific Homeopathic Medicines. That year, this advertisement touting his medicines appeared in several July and August editions of the “Buffalo Daily Republic.”

The ad went on to list 15 medicines that targeted specific conditions such as fever pills, diarrhea pIlls headache pills, etc. and stated:

The MEDICINES are prepared in the form of MEDICATED SUGAR TABLETS, neatly put up in boxes properly numbered and labeled. Fifteen such boxes, containing many hundreds doses, are enclosed in a neat portable case, enclosing a manual, giving a precise description of the diseases treated, and directions for giving the medicines, diet, etc….

F. HUMPHREYS & CO., Auburn, N.Y

By 1858 Humphreys had partnered with Azariah Palmer and moved his operation from Auburn, New York south to New York City where the 1858 – 1859 directory listing for Humphrey & Palmer made it clear the partnership was selling both Humphreys Specific Homeopathic Medicines and Pond’s Extract at 562 Broadway in Manhattan.

Palmer was a friend of Pond who, according to several internet sources also claimed rights to Pond’s Extract.

The partnership was short-lived and by 1860 Humphrey & Palmer had been replaced at the 562 Broadway location by Humphreys & Co.  with Palmer no longer mentioned. The business operated under the F. Humphreys name from 1860 to 1864 during which time they continued to advertise the remedy, now typically as Pond’s Extract of Hamamelis, as evidenced by this January 9, 1862 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” ad.

Things changed in 1865 when, according to New York State Appellate Court records in the case of “Frederick Humphreys against Francis W. Hurtt,” the business incorporated in March of that year as the Humpherys’ Specific Homeopathic Medicine Company, with Frederick Humphreys, Francis Hurtt and Abia Selover all equal share holders. Later that year things changed again when Palmer re-entered the picture and Selover was bought out. According to the court records, in December, 1865:

by a mutual concession of stock by them made to one Azariah S. Palmer, the latter became a member of said corporation and that Humphreys and Hurtt afterwards, by purchase, became the owners in equal proportions of the remaining interest of Selover in the stock and assets of the company.

The court records go on to say that when the dust settled, both Humphreys and Hurtt each owned 44% of the company and Palmer the remaining 12% with the company itself consisting of the following two branches of business:

The exclusive right of manufacturing and selling a medicine called “Pond’s Extract”  and a similar right in a certain medicine called “Humphreys’ Specific Homeopathic Medicine.”   

Humphreys was named president with Hurtt serving as treasurer and  general manager. Palmer remained in upstate New York and several internet sources suggest that his stake in the corporation was in exchange for him giving up any claim he had to the Pond’s name.

During this time the abbreviated name of simply “Ponds Extract,” most often appeared in their advertisements, as evidenced by this 1868 advertisement that touted both Humphreys Specific Homeopathic Medicines and Ponds Extract. (Note Humphreys’ medicines had more than doubled in number from 15 to 34)

The appellate court records go on to say that in December, 1872 Humphreys and Hurst, not getting along, agreed that the two branches of the business should be separated and the assets divided equally between them, reserving the rights and interests of Palmer. As a result, Humphreys retained possession of the homeopathic medicine piece of the  business while Hurtt acquired possession of Ponds Extract. (It was disagreement on the value of each business that resulted in the referenced court case.)

Hurtt didn’t waste any time and by 1873 – 74 his Pond’s Extract Company was initially  listed in the New York City directory with a lower Manhattan address of 98 Maiden Lane. That same year he also opened a London, England location as evidenced by this early advertisement that appeared in the “Walsall Advisor” of  West Midlands, England on December 30, 1873.

In 1879 – 1880 the company moved its New York City location to 18 Murray Street, also in lower Manhattan. Certainly their office location, by then the company also listed a factory location in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at First (later Kent Ave.) and South Sixth Streets as well as a distillery in Chester, Connecticut. A story in the July 3, 1879 “Rutland (Vt.) Daily Herald” briefly described the operation at the time.

Their great distillery is located in Chester, Conn., where the shrub grows in abundance. It is manufactured from half-inch twigs and brought here (to Brooklyn) in barrels. From these it is poured into large tanks, refined and conveyed by hose to the automatic bottle-fillers, run by machinery and tended by girls, who place the bottles and remove them when filled.

When one looks at these ponderous tanks filled with the healing remedy, they can form some idea of the gigantic proportions to which this enterprising and reliable company have grown…

The story went on to say that the company’s product menu had significantly increased by that time.

It is scarcely supposable that there is another being in the United States who does not know about Pond’s Extract as an antidote for pains and aches which arise from various causes. But there are, doubtless, many who do not know about the toilet articles which they manufacture from this valuable extract. A fine and beautifully perfumed toilet cream which softens the skin and imparts fairness to the complexion is one of the products of this company. A large portion of the toilet cream is composed of Pond’s Extract in a condensed form. Liquid dentrifice, lip salve, toilet soap, ointment, plasters and catarrh remedy are other specifics which the Pond Extract Company have originated and made a success of…

Each of these items, as well as a few more, were included in this price list found in the December 19, 1880 edition of the “Poughkeepsie Journal.”

In 1880, after a failed effort to co-locate the office and manufacturing ends of the business the company moved its New York offices to 14 West 14th St. while at the same time maintaining their Brooklyn factory. The company’s reasoning was included in a May 3, 1880 edition of “The Daily Graphic.”

Our occupation of No. 18 Murray Street during the past year was only temporary, hoping that we might be able to find suitable accommodations to again unite our Counting-room and Manufactory. But our business has grown so rapidly since we began to manufacture a line of articles having POND’S EXTRACT for the basis, and so much room and power are now required that we have concluded to establish ourselves with Advertising Department, Factory, Laboratory, etc., in our building, so conspicuous to travelers on the East River, corner First and South Sixth Streets, Brooklyn, E.D., and have taken permanently for our Office and Sales rooms, No.14 West 14th Street.

Two years later, in  March, 1882, much of the company’s Brooklyn factory was seriously impacted by fire. According to an April 12, 1882 story in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch:”

The destruction of the Pond’s Extract Building by fire on the 18th of March is little short of a national calamity. The building which served as the laboratory, printing, lithographing, advertising and shipping departments of the company was one of the best known in New York, and its burning incurs the loss to Brooklyn of a great monument to trade, and the temporary stoppage of a great industry. Fortunately a schooner loaded with Pond’s Extract had arrived on the night before the fire, too late to discharge its cargo and this supply of the Extract was enough to carry the company over until the distillery at Chester, Connecticut was put to work at full blast. The loss was almost entirely covered by insurance and although the calamity occurred at a time when the orders for the Extract and the toilet articles and specialties also manufactured by the company were large consequently entailing a little temporary embarrassment, every exertion was made to shorten the delay in their execution to a period of two or three days only. This, at least, as regards the Extract itself; the provision of new machinery for the manufacture of the toilet and special preparations  delayed the fulfillment of the orders of this department for a week or ten days…

Four months later the factory had not only been re-built, but enlarged as well. This description of the new construction was included in the “Brooklyn Daily Times” on July 6, 1882.

Immediately after the disastrous fire in March last that nearly destroyed the Pond’s Extract Manufactory at the corner of South Sixth and First Streets, the company determined to reconstruct and enlarge the building. The walls were built in a most substantial manner and the greater part of them stood as firmly after the fire as before. All the floor beams throughout the building were removed and new ones put in. The walls were run up another story so now the building is five stories high, each with a floor area of 75 x 100 feet. An Otis elevator has been placed in the building. A powerful engine supplies an abundance of power for the entire building and it is now as fine a manufactory as any fronting on the East River.

Changes occurred in the mid to late 1880’s when by 1885 the company had vacated both the Brooklyn factory and  their West 14th Street Manhattan location, consolidating their operation at 76 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where it took up much of the block between 13th and 14th Streets. Later in the decade a fire in their Chester distillery resulted in a move to Clinton, Connecticut.

These changes were all reflected in this turn of the century description of their operation that appeared in the  February 28, 1902 edition of the “Hartford Courant.”

The distilleries of the Pond’s Extract Company are substantial structures located in the heart of the Hamamelis country. During the late fall and winter months, the outlying districts awake to activity, and large numbers of workmen are engaged in cutting the brush and hauling it to the stills. This gives employment to many farmers, and constitutes one of the leading industries of this section. In the seclusion of these mysterious stills the “extract” is prepared, then shipped by car-load to the company’s extensive laboratory in New York, when its preparation is completed.

Here is the depot of the Pond’s Extract Company, and in the big court, enclosed by the walls of their two large buildings at 76 Fifth Avenue, and No. 1 West 13th Street, carloads of barrels rise high as the winds above. The next day the contents of these same barrels will have been scattered in bottles to every part of the civilized world.

Although they were manufacturing other products, up through the first decade of the twentieth century Pond’s Extract was certainly the company’s marque product. With its 60 plus year reputation they continued to stress its medicinal qualities, referring to it as “The Old Family Doctor.”.

They were even promoting a “Pond’s Extract Accident Case” that included a bottle of their extract along with bandages and other first aid items as evidenced by this advertisement that appeared in a 1905 magazine advertisement.

By then, with their curative claims having been toned down, Pond’s Extract was also being promoted as an “after shave” as evidenced by this 1904 advertisement in “Harper’s Monthly.”

In 1906 or 1907 the company moved out of their long time New York City location on Fifth Avenue, relocating to Manhattan’s Hudson Street. As part of the move it appears they relocated their bottling operation to their Clinton, Connecticut facility. According to the State of Connecticut’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Report for the Year Ending November 30, 1906.

CLINTON

A two-story frame addition to its plant was built by the Pond’s Extract Company. It is 30 x 100 feet and cost $4,500. A bottling department, heretofore carried on elsewhere, was also added. It is of frame construction, two stories high, 45 x 80 feet, and cost $5,500.

Other changes were also in the works during this time, as evidenced by a  feature on the company published years later in the December 30, 1930 edition of the “Hartford Courant”

Until 1906 Pond’s Extract was the only important product manufactured by the company. During  that year, however, Pond’s Vanishing Cream and Cold Cream were introduced in this country.

This began what was certainly a shift in the company’s philosophy away from their witch hazel based medicinal products and toward skin care and beauty products; a shift illustrated by the following two advertisements.

In this 1910 ad found in several editions of a magazine called “The Book News Monthly,” both Pond’s Extract and Pond’s Vanishing Cream were advertised together. In fact, Pond’s Extract was the headliner and it’s bottle pictured.

Less than ten years later, in the late teens, most of the company’s advertisements feature women extolling the virtues of both their Vanishing Cream and Cold Cream without even a mention of Pond’s Extract. The following ad that  appeared  in the January 21, 1917  edition of the “New York Times” was typical.

The advertisement went on to include quotes from several famous women of the day including motion picture actress, Norma Talmadge who said:

I have found Pond’s Vanishing Cream wonderful as a base for make-up. It leaves my skin fresh and clean.

Another, along the same lines was  found in the October, 1921 edition of a British magazine called “The Strand.”

The 1930 Hartford Courant feature also noted that by then more skin care products had been added to their menu.

In 1927 the Pond’s Extract Company introduced two new products to be associated with the creams – Pond’s Cleansing Tissues and Pond’s Skin Freshener.

As the product line increased, so did the Pond Company’s facilities. By 1930 the “Hartford Courant” story noted that the company had added a paper mill in Seymour, Connecticut to manufacture their cleansing tissues, while at the same time it was expanding their Clinton, Connecticut facilities:

In 1929 a large modern fire-resistant building was erected to become the main manufacturing plant of the company being connected to the old building by fire-proof bridges and a tunnel.

The new laboratories where Pond’s creams are manufactured are as immaculate as a modern dairy and the most modern of machinery and devices are used for filling. labeling and packing the creams. Hands do not come in contact with the creams during their preparation or packing.

An image of their new plant was included in the October, 1931 edition of a magazine called “Autocar Messenger.”

On a side note, the “Autocar Messenger” also included the following photo…

…whose caption read:

The Pond’s Extract Company’s Model NC Autocar makes scheduled trips between plants in Seymour and Clinton, Conn. It has a wheelbase of 218 inches, semi-van body and Autocar de Luxe Cab. Under the hood is an Autocar Blue Streak Engine.

By 1930 the company’s reach was certainly world-wide.

Two subsidiary companies – Pond’s Extract Company, International, Ltd. and Pond’s Extract Company of Canada, Ltd., conduct the business of the company outside of the United States.

Throughout  the 1930’s the number of skin care and beauty products produced by the company continued to increase, with the company’s  advertising devoted almost exclusively to these products. That being said their Pond’s Extract, though not advertised to any great extent, remained on the market through much of the 1940’s.

As late as 1942 Pond’s Extract was included in this January 22nd advertisement for their vanishing cream found in a grocery store advertisement published in the  “Pasadena (California) Post…”

… and it was sporadically named in local drug store advertisements  throughout much of the decade. The latest one I can find appeared in an August 29, 1947  “Tulsa (Oklahoma) Tribune” ad for Skagg’s Drug Center where you could buy the 25 cent size for 21 cents.

As far as I can tell, all newspaper references pertaining to the sale of  Pond’s Extract disappear prior to 1950.

Ultimately, the Pond’s Extract Company merged with the Cheesebrough Manufacturing Company in 1955. The April 28th edition of the “Buffalo News” announced the merger like this:

Directors of Cheesebrough Mfg. Co., makers of vaseline products, and Pond’s Extract Co. approved an agreement of merger today. The name of the new company will be Cheesebrough-Pond’s, Inc…

Cheesebrough-Ponds was later acquired by Unilever in December, 1986. Subsequently, 25 years later,  in 2011, Unilever announced they were closing the former Pond’s plant in Clinton, Connecticut. The announcement appeared in the July 15, 2011 edition of the “Hartford Courant.”

Unilever is closing its manufacturing plant in Clinton next year, laying off 184 workers who make Vaseline Petroleum Jelly and other body care products at the facility…

The Clinton plant manufactures Vaseline, Pond’s and Dove face-care products; Axe, Dove and Suave hair styling products; Dove lotion, shampoo and conditioner; and other hair and skin products. The work will be transferred to other Unilever plants…

The plant had certainly closed by late the following year as evidenced by this auction notice that appeared in the November 11, 2012 edition of the “Hartford Courant.”

The bottle I found is embossed “PONDS EXTRACT” vertically on one face while the date “1846” is embossed on the base. Mouth blown, it likely dates sometime around the turn of the century before the advent of machine made bottles. It was almost certainly packaged in what the company referred to as a “buff wrapper” as evidenced by this  March 15, 1900 Louisville, Kentucky “Courier Journal” advertisement.

This June 11, 1905 advertisement published in the St. Louis “Globe Democrat,” noted that at the time it came in four sizes.

The subject bottle is  almost certainly the small size. Other sizes sold around that time were pints (medium) and quarts (large). I’m not sure how big the emergency size was however based on the above pricing it couldn’t have been much more than an ounce or so.

ON A FINAL NOTE:

The Brooklyn factory building utilized by the company between the late 1870’s and mid 1880’s owns a sliver of little known (at least to me) New York City history. Located right along the shores of the East River its clock tower was visible to the River’s boat traffic. After the 1882  fire the clock was replaced by one of, if not the largest clock in the United States at the time. It was described like this in a June 6, 1882 “Brooklyn Daily Times story:

One of the principal features of the remodeled structure is the clock tower which rises at the southwest corner of the building to a height of nearly 199 feet above the sidewalk, being surmounted by a mansard roof and a flag staff. The old clock destroyed by the fire was well known to passengers on the ferry boats and steamboats along the river; for it could could be seen at a distance of several miles and was always a reliable time piece. The new clock is much larger, and its manufacturers the Seth Thomas Clock Company, claim that it will prove itself to be a better clock. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, clocks in the United States, for there are none in the country that can boast of a dial plate fifteen feet four inches in diameter, with figures two feet in length and hands in proportion. There are other clocks in the country, that have more dial room on account of having four dials, the Pond’s clock has but two, but none with a dial of as great diameter. A TIMES reporter lately visited the clock-tower of the Pond’s Building in which the works of the clock are located. The mechanism of the great clock is highly finished, a great pendulum nearly fifteen feet long and extending down two stories, swinging back and forth with dignified regularity. It consists of a great polished iron bar, at the end of which is a large cylinder of solid iron weighing about 800 pounds. The weights that keep the clock in motion weigh nearly one thousand pounds, and have a fall of about twenty feet. The clock will run eight days after being wound up.

As far as I can tell, after moving out in 1885 the Pond’s Extract Company ultimately sold the building in 1889. That being said, it continued to be referred to as the Pond’s Building until 1897 when it was demolished to make way for the Brooklyn approach to the Williamsburg Bridge. A December 22, 1897 “Brooklyn Daily Times” story provided the final chapter.

…the big Pond’s Extract building at the foot of South Sixth Street and Kent Avenue, is in rapid process of demolition and other buildings are being quickly torn down to make way for the approach to the new bridge. It is expected that the work of sweeping away the Pond’s building will be completed within a week. The old clock in this building which has been for so long to the thousands of people going to New York and coming from it a landmark, will also have to go in the process of clearing the buildings in the way of the new bridge.

The Williamsburg Bridge opened to traffic six years later on December 19, 1903.

Huile D Olive, Superfine, Bertrand Freres, Grasse

The French phrase, “Huile D Olive,” translates to “Olive Oil,” so it’s apparent that the subject bottle contained olive oil produced in Grasse, France by the firm of Bertrand Freres (Bertrand Brothers).

Founded in 1858 by two brothers, Baptistin and Emelien Bertrand, this 19th century engraving of their factory found in the Municipal Archives of Grasse, described the business as:

Fabricants D’ Essences Fines & De Matieres Premieres Pour Parfumerie

or, courtesy of “Google Translate:”

Manufacturers Of Fine Essences & Raw Materials for Perfumery

The business would operate in Grasse under the Bertrand Freres name for well over 100 years.

Located in Southern France, an August 24, 1926 story found in a publication called “Drug Markets,” referred to Grasse as “the heart of the world’s perfume industry.” The story opened with this description of the town which serves to provide some context to the company’s history.

Located about 20 kilometers from Cannes, with an altitude of 692 feet, the town of Grasse is situated in the heart of the flower-growing district of France, and hence might very well be considered the center of France’s perfume industry. And to the extent that other countries depend on France for their oils, pomades and concentrates for their raw materials in manufacturing perfumes, this town of 19,700 inhabitants may be called the heart of the world’s perfume industry…

In this town are located such well-known French houses as Etablissement Antoine Chris, Charabot & Co., Lautier Fils, Pilar Freres, Roure-Bertrand Fils, Bertrand Freres, and others.

Plants are located in Grasse, and these houses either buy their flowers from the peasants, or grow them themselves, and here manufacture their oils, concentrates or pomades as the case may be.

An advertisement that appeared in the May 1, 1865 edition of a British publication called the “Pharmaceutical Journal & Transactions,” provided this menu of products the company manufactured during its first decade.

While the above menu fails to mention olive oil, Bertrand Freres was certainly producing it from the very beginning as evidenced by what has to be one of the company’s earliest directory listings found in the 1859 Industry Trade Directory-Almanac under the heading “District of Grasse.”

   

Translated, the listing reads as follows:

Bertrand Brothers, new improvements for the rectification of essences of mint, anise, etc., distilled waters of bitter orange blossoms, lemons from Portugal; olive oils and all the products of the South.

Sometime in the early 1870’s the Bertrand brothers turned control of the business over to a partnership headed by Hubert Schlienger. He, and later his son Emile Schlienger, would serve as senior partners in the firm up through at least 1940.

It appears that it was also in the 1870’s that the business began to focus their attention on the U. S. market as evidenced  by this news item that appeared in the March 21. 1878 edition of the “Detroit Free Press.”.

Henry Fielding, representative of the essential oil house of Bertrand Freres, Grasse, France, was in the city yesterday. He received several large orders from some of the wholesale drug and perfumery establishments of the city.

It was also in the 1870’s that the company’s products began appearing in United States newspaper advertisements. An advertisement touting their “concentrated essences” appeared in the March 9, 1876 edition of the “Yorkville (York, S. C.) Enquirer.”

Another, this one headlining their olive oil, appeared in the March 25, 1878 edition of Connecticut’s Hartford Courant.

In 1898 and 1899, Fraser, Viger & Co., a self described “grocer and wine merchant” located in French speaking Montreal, Canada, advertised their olive oil using the French wording embossed on the subject bottle:”HUILE d OLIVE.”

A feature on the business published in the May 11, 1911 edition of the “American Perfumer,” depicted their turn of the century Grasse factory, and made it clear that by then their distribution was “world-wide,” specifically referring to the United States and Canada as two of their “chief markets.”

The house of Bertrand Freres, which has won such an enviable reputation in the perfumery trade, was founded in 1858 by two brothers named Baptistin and Emilien Bertrand, who laid the foundation upon which a world-wide trade of extensive proportions has since been built. The chief markets catered to however are Paris, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States…

The house has long had agents practically all over the world, and more recently has invaded South America, where headquarters for the continent have been established in Santiago de Chile…

The spacialties manufactured by the firm are extracts, solid and liquid concretes, floral ottos for confectioners and most of the high grade essential oils.

The company’s U. S. agent at the turn of the century was Clayton Rockhill who, according to his biography published in the 1918 edition of “The Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume VIII, founded his business in 1884. In 1895, the New York City Copartnership and Corporation Directory identified Rockhill as the “agent for Bertrand Freres, Grasse, France.” The 1890 Copartnership and Corporation Directory simply referred to him as a merchant so it’s likely that their relationship began sometime in the early 1890’s.

This early advertisement associating Rockhill with Bertrand Freres appeared in the April 1, 1897 edition of the “American Soap Journal & Perfume Gazette.

Originally located at 30 Platt Street, Rockhill’s business moved to 114 John Street around 1900. Then in 1906 he formed a  partnership with Carl Louis Vietor. Their partnership notice appeared in the March 1, 1906 edition of the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer.”

A copartnership has been formed between Clayton Rockhill and Carl L. Vietor, both of this city, under the firm name of Rockhill & Vietor, to carry on the general shipping and commission business which has been carried on by Mr. Rockhill. Mr. Vietor, who is the son of George F. Vietor, a well-known dry goods merchant of this city, has been with Mr. Rockhill for two years.

An advertisement in the same March 1 edition of the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer” made it clear that their business relationship with Bertrand Feres remained unchanged.

Sometime in 1912 Rockhill & Vietor moved to 22 Cliff Street where the company was listed up through 1921. During this time, Bertrand Freres apparently managed a separate olive oil branch managed by importer Chandros Weddle at his office at 100 Hudson Street. This entry in the 1915 Copartnership and Corporation Directory associated Rockhill and Vietor with the perfume business and Weddle with olive oil, and was typically how Bertrand Freres was listed beginning in 1912.

In 1922 Rockhill & Vietor announced a move to new quarters in the February edition of the “American Perfumer.”

Rockhill and Vietor, established in John Street (actually 30 Platt)  in 1884 by the late Clayton Rockhill and now at 22 Cliff Street, will move to new quarters in the near future, combining the oil department with its other branches at 62 Grand Street.

Two months later, Rockhill & Vietor was dissolved (Rockhill had passed away in 1918), and replaced by a new firm, P. R. Dreyer, located not on Grand Street but Beekman Street.

Confused? Hopefully this May 1, 1922 story in the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer” will serve to clarify.

Due to the liquidation of the firm of Rockhill & Vietor, New York, P. R. Dreyer, who has been manager of the essential oil department of the company for several years, has been appointed American and Canadian agent for Bertrand Freres, Grasse, France, and American agent for N. V. Chemische Fabric Naarden, Bussum, Holland, which firms Rockhill and Vietor represented heretofore.

Mr. Dreyer has been associated with the essential oil industry for more than twenty years and enjoys an extensive acquaintance among the members of the soap, perfume and allied trades, particularly in the East and Middle-West.

The new headquarters of Mr. Dreyer are located at 109-111 Beekman Street, New York City.

Up through 1925 and possibly longer, NYC directories continued to associate Chandros Weddle with Bertrand Freres at his 100 Hudson Street location so it appears that the olive oil business remained separate and distinct.

Meanwhile, back in Grasse at around the same time, the company was in the process of expanding their physical plant. According to the French “Ministre De La Culture” web site:

Like other perfumery companies the company Bertrand Freres had an annex site built in the early 1920’s dedicated to extraction by volatile solvents. There are two main reasons for the construction of this new site: to move the extraction workshops away from the inhabited areas and to avoid overloading the site of the parent plant with its already very dense buildings by adding new constructions. The annex establishment is built on a rose plantation that the company owned.

The new facility, constructed adjacent to their existing facility, was described in a December, 1922 feature published the American Perfumer.

Bertrand Frteres are now occupying their enlarged factory at Grasse, France, which was completed last Spring, thus adding with a modern concrete fire-proof structure, another fitting milestone in the history of this well known concern…

The new factory has three stories appropriately arranged to carry on manufacturing processes with the least waste of effort. Perhaps the most striking things to catch the eye of the visitor are the tiled walls, the abundance of natural light and the scrupulous cleanliness maintained throughout the factory. The most modern machinery and equipment have been installed, it is stated, and safety devices are freely employed. Above the third floor there is an oriental pavilion for entertaining guests. The boiler house occupies a unit by itself quite distinct from the factory proper and the fluted smoke stack rises far above the highest point in the factory where any manufacturing processes are conducted, preventing any possible damage by smoke.

The feature included several views of the newly enlarged factory.

Shown clockwise from the top left are: rectifying stills; general view of the plant; a group of stills; volatile solvent extracting apparatus; entrance to the offices and vacuum stills.

P.R Dreyer advertisements in several 1922 editions of the “American Perfumer” featured the enlarged facility.

 

Four years later, in 1926, the August 24th edition of “Drug Markets” announced that Bertrand Freres had established an American corporation with Dreyer serving as president.

Bertrand Freres, well known Grasse, France, essential oil house has formed an American branch with headquarters in New York. P. R. Dreyer, of P. R. Dreyer, New York, who has been representing the French company in this country is president of the new company. E. Schlienger, senior partner of the French house is vice president, A. Mueller, a member of the parent concern is secretary-treasurer, and O. C. Ispell is assistant secretary-treasurer. By this division of officers, the American company is able to function in this country with a certain degree of independence while actual control of the company is maintained by the parent concern in Grasse. A more active participation in the American essential oil market is anticipated by this step, and the French company looks for an increased and larger business following this active and aggressive step.

 

Whether Weddle continued his association with Bertrand Freres and their olive oil after the U. S. incorporation is unclear, however, he continued to be listed at 100 Hudson Street with the occupation of “food products” until he ultimately passed away in 1933. . That being said, I suspect, but can’t confirm, that by the end of the 1926 to 1933 time frame, the company was focused solely on perfumes and essential oils and the distribution of olive oil was all but forgotten in the United States.

Shortly after the incorporation, the November edition of “Drug Markets reported that a fire had forced P. R. Dreyer to move to a new location.

P. R. Dreyer, New York, whose place of business was damaged by fire recently, has leased a 3 – story building at 26 Cliff Street.

Sometime in the late 1930’s they apparently relocated to 12 East 12th Street before moving to 119 W 19th Street, where both Bertrand Freres and P. R. Dreyer were listed together throughout most of  the early 1940’s. By the late 1940’s’s the companies were listed with separate addresses with Bertrand Freres located at 111 Broadway in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, and 443 Fourth Avenue in the late 1950’s up through at least 1960.

In 1973 the Bertrand Freres business moved across the Hudson River to Maywood, New Jersey to serve as the U. S. distributor for a Unilever company called Proprietary Perfumes Ltd.. The September 2, 1973 edition of “The (Hackensack, New Jersey) Record” told the story.

New Jersey alone has more than 50 perfume compounding companies. The state has become a center for the industry.

One of the latest entrants into the already crowded New Jersey field is Bertrand Freres Ltd., which moved from New York City to 17 Brook Ave. in Maywood earlier this year.

The firm is the American subsidiary of Bertrand Freres S. A. of Grasse, France – Grasse, north of Cannes, is in an area that has been the perfume center of the world for several centuries.

Bertrand Freres Ltd. moved to New Jersey after getting what its managers referred to as a new lease on life. That lease came in the form of U. S. distribution rights for Proprietary Perfumes Ltd (PPL) of Kent, England. PPL is the perfuming subsidiary of the giant multinational conglomerate Unilever, which is also the parent of Lever brothers, the soap and cosmetic company. 

Subsequently Bertrand Freres merged with PPL and another Unilever subsidiary forming “PPF International.” The merger was reported in the February 2, 1982 edition of several U. S. newspapers.

A merger of two British companies and a French firm to form one of the world’s largest fragrance and flavor producers, with annual sales of $200 million was announced yesterday.

Gerald Landers, appointed director of fragrance operations of the company, to be called PPF, said “the U.S. market will be our key growth market,” although the new company’s headquarters will be in Ashford, Kent, England. Landers is marketing director of Ashford’s Proprietary Perfumes Ltd., one of the three merging companies and the fifth largest supplier of fragrance compounds in the world. The other two firms are Food Industries Ltd. of Bromborough, England, and Bertrand Freres of Grasse, France.

As far as I can tell this marked the end of the Bertrand Freres company name.

Later, in 1986, Unilever set it sights on another firm, Naarden International with the intent of merging it with PPF. According to an August 19, 1986 story in London’s “Daily Telegraph:”

Unilever, the Anglo Dutch consumer products group, aims to boost the international status of its specialty chemicals division with a 110 million pound bid for Naarden International, the major Dutch producer of industrial fragrances.

Unilever hopes to combine Naarden with PPF International, its own fragrance group formed in 1982…

The merger was finalized several months later and the following year Unilever combined Naarden and PPF under the name of “Quest International.” According to the the French “Ministre De La Culture,” web site, Quest continued to occupy the Grasse factory site until 1998.

The bottle I found is 10 ounces in size and was blown in a “turn mold.” It sports a blob seal on which the product and company information is presented.

This likely dates it sometime around the turn of the century. Strangely, newspaper advertisements for their olive oil make no mention of a 10 ounce size. In fact, there’s no mention of sizes smaller than a pint. The following is from 1897/1898,

and this one’s from the early 1910’s.

Scott’s Mineralava

Mineralava was one of the first heavily advertised beauty clays. Popular in the 1920’s, newspaper advertisements published early in the decade explained the reasoning behind the “Mineralava” name.

The name Mineral-lava is well chosen. “Mineral” indicates the healing features, “Lava,” the clay, discovered to have wonderful natural properties. It may be – who knows? – from the bed of the ancient Fountain of Youth itself.

The advertisements went on to describe it’s many purported benefits.

Mineralava does what no artificial cream, cosmetics, soaps or massage  have been able to do – it cleanses the cogged pores. All the dust of cities, all the grease and impurities that modern life jams down the skin – hitherto quite irremovable – are now drawn forth gently and naturally and completely by Minerlava, in one application in your home.

Immediately, a blooming youthfulness of complexion glows and radiates from the cheeks. The long-stifled face pores breathe again. The blood rushes joyously through every tissue and muscle. Pimples, blackheads and blemishes are removed – wrinkles and tiny lines give place to a natural fullness of contour. Enlarged pours, oily skin, sagged muscles all go their way – and the face becomes striking in its beauty and youthfulness.

Recommended to be applied at least twice a week, it was to be used in combination with their face finish.

And the whole process only took 15 minutes!

After Mineralava is on the face there are twelve or fifteen minutes of complete restfulness. Or you can go about your regular work. You feel the agreeable tingle of the drying beauty clay, the delightful drawing sensation as the pores free of accumulations. Cold water quickly and easily removes the beauty mask.

The Face Finish is a bleach and tonic for the skin. It soothes and gently closes the pores, acting as a perfect base for your face powder. Best and lasting results proceed from continued use of Mineralava, Cold Water, Face Finish, in combination.

According to these early advertisements the product was the brain-child of a woman named M. G. Scott who developed it based on years of research and who had been using it locally in her beauty parlor. The American Medical Association certainly had their doubts, expressing this somewhat sarcastic opinion in their November 10, 1923 Journal:

Needless to say, it had a wonderful origin. It was the result we are told of “twenty-three years of scientific research and experiment” on the part of one Mrs. M. G. Scott. For some unknown reason Mrs. Scott is not a scientist, but a “fashionable specialist.”

That being said, by late 1920 Mineralava was being manufactured and distributed by a company called Scott’s Preparations, Inc., whose president was a man named Herbert Z. Pokress. A feature on Pokress entitled “The Romance of Small Business,” by Edward Mott Woolley, published in the November 26, 1923 edition of the Buffalo (N. Y.) Times lends some credence to the “Mrs. Scott” story.

For eighteen years Mrs. M. G. Scott was a facial specialist in Chicago, and evolved a so-called mineral clay. Among her patrons this clay was very popular, yet during all these years it remained a local product.

The way it happened was this, as I get the story from one of the principals:

H. Z. Pokrass, a Chicago hat manufacturer, was talking to Raymond Hitchcock, the actor, and Mr. Hitchcock chanced to mention this particular facial clay as being especially good. In a spirit of adventure, the two went to Mrs. Scott and tried it out.

Mr. Pokrass, who had imagination, saw the opportunity and soon afterward bought a ninety-per-cent interest in the clay, Mrs. Scott retaining the remaining ten percent.

Initially Mineralava was only marketed and sold to the beauty and cosmetics industry. The first newspaper reference for it that I can find offered the “new Mineralava Treatment” at the beauty parlor of a Hartford Connecticut department store called Wise, Smith & Co. The ad appeared in the December 23, 1920 edition of the Hartford Courant.

Around the same time Mineralava treatments were also available in the New York City area as evidenced by the following two advertisements. The first, published on February 16, 1921 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle announced that women could obtain the “new Mineralava Treatment and Mask of Youth” in the salon, located on the fifth floor of Loeser’s department store.

Another published the next day in the New York Herald made it clear that men were also in luck; able to obtain a Terminal Mud Massage using Scott’s Mineralava at any one of nine Terminal Barber Shops.

By this time Arthur J. Karr and his brother-in-law, George H. Souther, Jr. had joined the business. The 1922 New York City directory located Scotts, Preparations at 10 East 38th Street and named Pokress, Karr and Souther as president, secretary and treasurer respectively.

According to Woolley’s feature:

Karr was an advertising man in New York, and when he learned about the campaign to market the clay he saw even bigger possibilities.

So, likely at Karr’s urging, the company began looking to expand Mineralava’s distribution by promoting it for home use. As a result  on May 5, 1921 they entered into a contract with Vivaudou, Inc. to act as their sole and exclusive agent. Around the same time, according to Woolley:

After much consideration, it was decided to invest $10,000 in advertising Mineralava…The first advertisement appeared in the fall of 1921 – a full page in a weekly magazine published by a chain of newspapers.

The full page advertisement told a concocted story suggesting that renowned perfumer Victor Vivaudou discovered Mineralava while on a visit to the United States. Found in the September 18, 1921 edition of the San Francisco Examiner, the ad exhibited the following headline:

The advertisement went on to say:

Mr. Vivaudou writes as follows concerning Mineralava “I am sure all women take interest in the beauty with which Nature endows them.

Here in your own America I have found the one thing which ladies in Paris and all over the world have yearned for – a care of the complexion which is at once natural, convenient and successful – Scott’s Mineralava.”

Seldom have Mineralava treatments been administered for less than five dollars. Often the price was $10. Now the Vivaudous  organization is placing Minerlava in the drug and department stores of every city and hamlet in the country so that the price of a treatment by yourself in your home is less than 12 cents.

In December 1922 Scott’s Preparations and Vivaudou entered into a second contract. The terms were included in the June 1, 1924 edition of the “Soap Gazette and Perfumer.”

By the terms of the contract the Vivadou company was granted exclusive selling rights for the beauty clay in the United States and Canada, except to beauty and barber shops. The Mineralava concern agreed to spend $1,000,000 yearly in advertising during the term of the contract, beginning January 1, 1923 and to pay Vivaudou 10 percent of all gross business.

The significant dollars committed to advertising generated magazine and newspaper advertisements across the country.

In addition to newspaper and magazine advertising they signed Rudolph Valentino on as a spokesman for the clay.

Throughout much of 1923 he and his wife, Natacha Rambova conducted a Mineralava sponsored dance tour, performing in 88 cities across the United States and Canada. According to the June 1924 “Soap Gazette and Perfumer” story the total cost of the dance tour alone was $187,000.

In addition to dance routines, the tour included a beauty contest in each city, with the 88 winners participating in a national contest held in New York City. Here’s the invitation/advertisement for the April 7th Pittsburgh stop on the tour published in the Pittsburgh Gazette:

The national contest was held in New York City on November 28, 1923. That weekend, according to Time Magazine’s December 17, 1923 edition:

Then the 88 beauties were transported to Manhattan. They and their chaperones were housed on an entire floor of the Waldorf Astoria. They were taken in a fleet of taxi cabs to see the Acting Mayor…and paraded with three bands up Fifth Avenue.

The contest itself drew over 8,000 to New York’s  Madison Square Garden. The next day the New York Daily News reported:

Rudolph Valentino acted as chairman of the judges of the beauty contest at Madison Square Garden last night – the competition that resulted in Miss Toronto’s selection as the queen of beauty from eighty-eight  entrants from as many cities…

Thousands of persons notably paid $5.50 to see eighty-eight beauties parade around the platform, but actually stayed until long after midnight when Valentino placed the rhinestone crown over Miss Toronto’s  black curls.

On a side note: Unfortunately for the Mineralava company the impact of the final contest was muted when the press viewed it for what it was, a publicity stunt, and refused to mention the Mineralava name in their stories. Instead they simply referred to it as a “national beauty contest.”

As if all this wasn’t enough, Mineralava was also a pioneer in radio advertising as evidenced by a story on the “Golden Age of Radio,” published in the February 9, 1991 edition of the South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel.

The exact date of the first radio commercial is subject to debate. Of importance to premium collectors is a 1922 broadcast by movie queen Marion Davies. Her sponsor was Mineralava, a manufacturer of facial mud packs. The company offered listeners an autographed picture of the star.

Around this time, while sales were increasing significantly, the company’s advertising expenditures were taking a heavy toll on profits. According to “The Cumulative Daily Digest of Corporate News (Covering July, August and September, 1923):

SALES – Pres. of Co. reports that total sales in 1921 amounted to $94,000, in 1922 to $611,000 and for the first six months of 1923 to $767,000. Production cost for the first six months of 1923 was approximately $164,000, exclusive of advertising and selling costs. Due to high selling costs and to the expense of a huge advertising campaign put in operation a few months ago only $106,851 were saved to net profit.

Adding insult to injury, their distributor, Vivaudou Inc., was having financial difficulties and was ultimately sued by Scott’s Preparations for not living up to their contract terms. The June 1, 1924 Soap Gazette and Perfumer detailed Scott’s allegations.

The complaint alleges that the Vivaudou company failed to live up to the contract by neglecting to employ special salesmen to push the Mineralava Beauty Clay, by neglecting to pay its salesmen 5 per cent of the commissions of Mineralava sales and by refusing to sell Mineralava Beauty Clay to concerns which did not use Vivaudou products at the same discounted prices made to merchants purchasing Vivaudou products. In addition, the complaint alleges that the beauty clay was sold at higher prices to some merchants than agreed upon in the contract, and that no accounting of the sales was made, other than at regular prices.

The story went on to say:

…the beauty clay will not be sold through Vivaudou in the future, but will be sold direct to merchants by the Scott’s Preparations Company.

As far as I can tell national newspaper advertisements for Mineralava, though less numerous, continued up through 1925. By then, according to this October 6, 1925 ad in the Sacramento Bee, the facial had been reduced from fifteen to five minutes and the Mineralava product line had been expanded to include a face powder, face cream (guaranteed not to grow hair!) and six other related products.

At this point the manufacturer’s name had also changed to Mineralava Preparations, Inc. Whether or not this reflected a change in ownership/management is not clear to me.

After the national advertisements disappeared the Mineralava name continued to appear in drug store advertisements and price lists up through the late 1930’s.

The bottle I found is mouth blown with a rectangular cross section. “Scott’s Mineralava” is embossed on the base. The bottle, sans packaging, matches those from early 1920’s advertisements. Recognizing the 1920’s manufacture, I’m surprised its not machine made.

   

Typically called the $2.00 size, in the Spring of 1924 you could buy a bottle for $1.39. By then it was also available in a smaller, 50 cent tube size for 35 cents. Their $1.50 face finish set you back a buck..

 

M U M Mfg. Co. Philadelphia Pa.

Mum was the trade name for what is widely recognized as the first commercially available deodorant. Trademark records found on trademark.justia.com indicate that the name was first used as early as June 1, 1888.

“Mum” as easy to use as to say

A creamy substance applied by the fingertips, the State of Connecticut’s laboratory described the product like this:

Mum – This preparation, put out by the MUM Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, was analyzed by the Connecticut chemists in 1914, who reported that it was essentially zinc oxide, 14.3 percent, and benzoic acid (possibly derived from benzoin), 3.3 percent, and a fatty base. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley in his book “1001 Tests,” says of it: “A harmless deodorant consisting of fat with benzoic acid and zinc oxide.” No special claims. Efficacious in some cases.”

The company’s marketing message was certainly more eloquent as evidenced by this verbiage that appeared in a 1907 advertisement:

The difficulty of keeping the body perfectly free from odors in summer can be instantly overcome by “Mum,” a pure toilet cream that neutralizes the odors of perspiration by a non-injurious chemical process.

“Mum” does not smother bodily odors by a stronger and still more offensive odor, like various high-scented preparations. Nor does it interfere with the healthy action of the pores by clogging them. Does not harm the skin or clothing; just neutralizes the bodily odors and does it in a scientific hygenic way.

There are varying stories of  Mum’s invention circulating about the internet most of which involve an unknown Philadelphia inventor who named it after his childhood nurse. What we do know is that the invention was connected in some way with Philadelphia druggist George B. Evans, who by the late 1800’s was manufacturing it under the Mum Manufacturing Company name and selling it locally in his drug store chain. He ultimately turned it into a national brand and continued to manufacture and sell it up through the late 1920’s. A deodorant bearing the Mum name is still available today.

So, with that being said I’ll begin the story with George B. Evans.

A native Pennsylvanian, he was born outside of Philadelphia, in Montgomery County in 1857. A July, 1907 feature on his business published in the Bulletin of Pharmacy recounted his early history.

He went to Philadelphia, graduated from the Philadelphia, College of Pharmacy in 1880, and meanwhile learned the practical end of the drug business in Hubbell’s Pharmacy – a pharmacy which, by the way, is generally considered to have been one of the best training schools in the country.

Three years after his graduation from the P.C.P., Mr. Evans had succeeded in saving  $865, and with the help of a silent partner he bought a small stock of goods and established himself in business on the spot where his headquarters store is now located – 1104-6 Chestnut Street.

The silent partner was a railroad executive named Aaron Fries who for many years was a director of the Pennsylvania and Northwestern Railroad. According to his obituary in the November 15, 1906 edition of the Pharmaceutical Era he and Evans were boyhood friends. An 1895 Philadelphia Inquirer business notice that announced one of several periodic renewals of their limited partnership agreement, named Evans as “general” partner and Fries as “special” partner.

As far as I can tell they quietly remained partners until the death of Fries in October, 1906 at which time the October 5th edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer announced that the Evans  stores were closed that day in his honor.

The growth of their drug store business over the first 20 plus years can be summarized in a nutshell by this item, included in the Bulletin of Pharmacy’s 1907 feature.

The first day’s business back there in December, 1883, amounted to just about $30. On the very same calendar day in 1906, twenty-three years later, the sales in the identical location were something over $3600.

Initially located at 1104 Chestnut Street, this growth began to manifest itself as early as 1887 when they acquired the adjoining space at 1106 Chestnut Street. With this expansion Evans boasted of having what he said would be the largest retail drug store in America. The boast appeared in the March 15, 1887 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. C. J. Heppe, the piano manufacturer, of No. 1106 Chestnut Street, is looking for larger accommodations nearer to Broad Street than his present location. He has not yet decisively selected a store, but has one under consideration. He will remove about September 1. The rooms about to be vacated by Mr. Heppe will be occupied by the drug house of George B. Evans, now located at 1104 Chestnut Street. Mr. Evans said yesterday: “We expect to increase and enlarge our business. The new store will give ample room for the purpose. When we are established in our new quarters we will have the largest retail drug store in America.”

The following photograph that appeared in the 1907 feature pictured the original store at 1104 on the left, just below the barely readable “Get it at Evans” sign, and the 1106 addition on the right, below “EVANS APOTHECARY.” If you’re interested, the office of Mr. Evans was on the second floor, third from the right.

This rendering provides a more detailed representation of the 1106 Chestnut Street frontage. Is that Mr. Evans in his 2nd floor office window?

By the late 1880’s Evans was manufacturing his own line of patent medicines, as evidenced by this March 2, 1889 advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The menu of med’s included everything from Evan’s Sarsaparilla to Evan’s Worm Syrup but there’s no mention of Mum, which, in its infancy, was likely manufactured in the store with no apparent effort to advertise it.

By the early 1900’s the Evans business, now with five retail locations supported by a separate manufacturing facility, had evolved into one of the first drug store chains in the country. Each of the retail locations was described in the 1907 feature.

I have already stated that the headquarters store is located at 1104-6 Chestnut Street. The others are to be found at 1012 Market Street, 8th and Arch Streets, 17th and Chestnut Streets and 2330 North Front Street. The store at 17th and Chestnut is in a residence district and is what might be called a “family pharmacy.” The one on North Front Street is out in the Kensington  mill locality and was established for the purpose of catching the business of the laboring men in that section of the city. The other three stores are all of them downtown and within a few blocks of each other.

Shown below is the 8th and Arch location. It included 190 feet of street level window space.

The manufacturing facility, also referred to as a laboratory, was added in 1899. A December 1, 1898 item published in the Philadelphia Inquirer announced its arrival.

WITH THE BUILDERS

Contractor Charles McCaul submitted plans to the Bureau of Building Inspection yesterday providing for the erection of the four-story brick manufacturing building at the southeast corner of Tenth and Spring Streets,  for George B. Evans…

The 1907 feature went on to offer this indication of the size of the business at the time.

Would the reader like a few surprising figures to begin with? Well in the first place, there are five of the Evans stores, and the total annual sales exceed a million dollars. About half of this enormous volume of business is transacted in the headquarters store at 1104-6 Chestnut Street…

Here are some more figures and facts: $250,000 is invested in the stock, apart from the money tied up in fixtures. There are 250 people in the headquarters store alone, and 500 or 600 in the Evans employ altogether.

The philosophy that generated this growth was recounted in a September 21, 1933 Philadelphia Inquirer story.

He capitalized two good ideas in the drug store business and it made for George B. Evans, in 35 years, a fortune exceeding $3,000,000.

Mr Evans told me that when he began he had only a few hundred dollars in cash.

“I figured,” he went on, “that no man could prosper greatly by filling doctor prescriptions in a drug store. So I decided to promote soda fountain business and what the public calls jim-crack trade” meaning sale of commodities other than drugs.

A March 26,1906 story entitled “Fountain Beverages of Today” published in the Pharmaceutical Record described his soda fountain as one of the two largest in Philadelphia.

It is believed that the greatest trade in soda water in Philadelphia is divided between the pharmacy of George B. Evans, on Chestnut Street, above Eleventh, and the Broad Street Station Pharmacy, conducted by Mr. Stoever. Both of these stores make a specialty of soda water and there is as much attention paid in them to keeping up this department as there is in any other department of the store…

The manager of Evans’ store says the largest day’s business was when 4,000 drinks were dispensed. Both of these stores average about 2,000 glasses of soda water beverages of some kind or another every day in the year.

The story went on to describe the Evans fountain as well as the assortment of drinks served.

This fountain is 40 feet long and was manufactured by Robert M. Green & Sons. It is constructed of marble, onyx, silver and mahogany.

In commenting on the growth of the soda water business (the manager) Mr. Stinson said he has always about 60 kinds of syrups to draw upon, although at times there were about 100 concoctions…At the present time Mr. Stinson said the big run was on sundaes. There were also such popular drinks as pulp de marron, walnut bisque, hot grape juice, ginger rickey, egg bisque, hot egg phosphate, cherry orangeade, hot malted milk, maple cream puff, egg and chocolate cream puff, egg and coffee, celery egg tonic, nut salad sundae, besides the regular hot drinks that are sought after at this time of year.

The jim-crack trade as Evans called it included candy, sundries, toilet articles, leather goods, candy and perfume. The flagship store also featured a gift room on the second floor that, according to an August, 1903 story in the Bulletin of Pharmacy, featured 3,000 articles in china, bisque, cut glass, etc., and over 300 photograph frames. The extent of this trade was such that according to the 1907 feature:

The large trade which Evans enjoys in the sale of side lines and sundries causes his December sales to double those of any other month.

That’s not to say that the prescription business was neglected. This photograph that accompanied the 1903 story showed their prescription department where over 100 prescriptions were filled daily.

The entire operation was supported by their manufacturing facility that opened in 1899. Located at 219 North 10th Street its where Evans made many of the articles used and sold in his drug stores; candies, soda flavors, toilet waters, talcum powders and pharmaceuticals among them.

In 1898, a year before this facility opened, Evans established the Mum Manufacturing Company. The earliest reference to it that I can find was a series of advertisements that appeared in several March and April, 1898 editions of the Philadelphia Times.

So, while Mum may have been manufactured and sold locally in the Evan’s chain during the 1890’s, by the turn of the century, with the establishment of a separate company coupled with the opening of a new manufacturing facility, they were primed to go national.

Their expansion into the national market was explained years later, in the July, 1925 edition of a druggist publication called “The Spatula.”

Mum was placed on the market about twenty years ago by George B. Evans, the Philadelphia druggist. Previous to any attempts to secure national distribution, Mum had been thoroughly tried out through the Evans drug stores, and the local success it had attained warranted the belief that it had the “makings” of a national success. Accordingly Mr. Evans appropriated about $1,000 for advertising, and ran small advertisements in women’s magazines, offering to send a package for 25 cents. It was stipulated that the inquirer should send the name of her druggist, and when the order was filled, a second package was sent free to the druggist, with a letter stating that Mrs. Blank had been sold through the mail, and had been advised that she could secure her next package from him. So, there was the package, and if Mr Druggist wanted any more he could secure it from his jobber, the prices being so and so.

This advertisement, reflecting the above approach, appeared in the July, 1907 edition of a publication called the “Trained Nurse and Hospital Review,” which, in that era was certainly considered a women’s magazine. It confirmed that the ad campaign described above was certainly up and running by that time.

The Spatula story went on to say that:

This was the only method used for selling to both the user and the druggist, but it was sufficient for the reason that it was done well. Up to the present year (1924) no salesmen had been employed, and the present great and profitable business of the Mum Manufacturing Co. has been built up entirely from the original investment of $1,000. The Periodical Publishing Association, in one of its bulletins, recites these facts and states further that the magazine advertising expenditure for Mum for 1924 will be approximately $125,000.

As budgets increased their ads began appearing in more and more of the national magazines of the day including Life, Vogue, Munsey’s, Good Housekeeping, etc. Their target audience however, remained unchanged as evidenced by the following advertisement that appeared in the June, 1924 edition of “Vogue.”

The caption at the bottom reads:

Even in crowded gatherings and in warmer weather the dainty woman can always preserve the sweet daintiness of her female charm

By this time many of their advertisements included two additional Mum Manufacturing Company products that had also gone national; “Amoray” Talc and Evan’s Depilatory, .

In 1929 Mum was sold to a subsidiary of the Sterling Products Company. The announcement appeared in the February issue of the Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review.

Announcement was made that “Mum” one of the best known deodorants in the toilet goods field has been purchased by the Household Products Company, controlled by the Sterling Products Co. of Wheeling, W. Va.

Around that time Sterling Products, Inc. was owned by a holding company called Drug, Inc., that also owned the assets of United Drug, Inc., Bristol-Myers Co., Vick Chemical Co., and Life Savers Inc. Later, in August, 1933, Drug, Inc. was segregated into five new corporations; Sterling Products, Inc., United Drug, Inc., Vick Chemical, Co., Bristol-Myers Co., and Life Savers, Inc. As far as I can tell, when the dust settled the assets of the Mum Manufacturing Co. ended up under the Bristol-Myers Co.

Bristol-Myers began advertising Mum in 1933. The first ad I can find, in the December edition of Good Housekeeping, listed the Mum Mfg. Co with a New York City address of 75 West Street in Manhattan. They’re also listed that year in the 1933 New York City telephone directory. Advertisements in 1935 substituted Bristol-Myers, Inc. as the company name, so it appears that the Mum Manufacturing Company name was dropped around that time.

In 1952 Bristol-Myers  launched it’s initial roll-on antiperspirant under the Mum name, Mum Rollette. According to a post on cosmeticsandskin.com:

In 1952 the new antiperspirant lotion in its ball-point package went on sale in the American market in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus.

This introductory advertisement with the heading “Now in Baltimore,” appeared in the July 23, 1952 edition of Baltimore’s Evening Sun.

The cosmeticsandskin.com post went on to say:

…the early reactions were good but unfortunately the applicator seized up with use, generating a string of complaints. This caused Bristol-Myers to remove the product from sale and do further research.

The product successfully re-emerged in the U. S. under it’s now famous name, “Ban.” (Bristol-Myers continued to market it in Europe under the name Mum Rollette.)

Bristol-Myers continued to advertise the cream version of Mum throughout the 1950’s, still primarily in women’s magazines like “Good Housekeeping,” and “Woman’s Day.” The following advertisement appeared in the April, 1956 issue of “Woman’s Day.” I’ve seen Mum advertisements appear in U. S. magazines as late as 1959.

Packaging of Mum, other than the rollette version, changed very little over the years. Originally it was sold in a small milk glass container approximately 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The lower half was welled and contained the cream. The top half fit over the well and was smooth on top to accommodate a label. This early version of their packaging recently appeared for sale on e-bay.

I found a lower half, shown below on the left. “Mum Mfg. Co., Phila., Pa.,” is embossed on the base, dating it between 1898, when the company started and 1929 when it was sold. An example that includes both the top and bottom is shown on the right, courtesy of e-bay.

 

Bristol-Myers versions from the 1940’s and 1950’s are shown below. At this point the top is made of metal.

A roll-on version of Mum is still manufactured today (2017) by Dendron, Ltd. under a license from the Proctor & Gamble Co. According to their web site:

Now offering four MUM roll-on products, we offer a fragrance for every woman – even those with sensitive skin. And because we have over 120 years of experience giving women effective protection, we’re a brand you can rely on.

So, just in case you’re interested in what became of the Evans drug stores…

At around the same time that Mum was sold to Sterling Products, the Walgreen Co. acquired the capital stock of the George B. Evans drug store chain which by then had expanded from five to eight stores. The acquisition was reported in the September 14, 1928 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The merging of the eight stores of the Evans Drug Company with the Walgreen Company of Chicago was announced yesterday by Charles R. Walgreen, president of the Walgreen concern.

The deal, it is understood, was consummated at a price between $3,500,000 and $4,000,000. Mr. Walgreen declined to discuss the terms of the transaction.

The merger gives the Walgreen Company the ownership of 180 stores and the operation of about twenty others and represents its first entrance into the chain drug store business in this city. Philadelphia, with New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Rochester, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Memphis, Columbus, Ohio and Louisville, will become one of the more than twenty cities now linked in that chain.

The Evans Company has been operating stores here since 1883, and it is understood under the terms of the merger, they will continue to operate under that name, for the present at least.

How long Walgreen continued to use the Evans name is not clear, however, what is clear is that by the late 1930’s they had vacated the flagship location on Chestnut Street, which in 1940 was occupied by the John Davis Co., a furrier. I can confirm that at least three of their other stores had been vacated by that time as well.

The 1104/1106 Chestnut Street buildings remain to this day. They appear below courtesy of Google Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Armour and Company, Chicago (Armour Laboratories)

Established in the mid 1860’s by Phillip Danforth Armour and John Plankinton, Armour and Company was a meat packing business that by the turn of the century had grown into one of the largest companies in the United States. For many years its presence in Chicago’s Union Stock Yards contributed, in no small way, to that city’s reputation as the capital of the American meatpacking industry.

Not only a meat producer, the company was heavily involved in the manufacture of by-products utilizing materials that were typically wasted in the slaughtering process. According to an October 20, 1901 story in the Buffalo (N.Y.) Times:

It is a saying in Chicago that the house of Armour & Co., in the slaughter of hogs, “loses nothing but the squeal of the hogs” when they are led to the slaughter. Employing many thousands of men in the varied industries growing out of their vast slaughtering business, the firm has found it immensely profitable to utilize all portions of the raw material by the firm.

The story went on to provide this menu of  products manufactured under the Armour name at the turn of the century. The list would grow well into the hundreds by the 1920’s

The business got its start with John Plankinton, not in Chicago but further north in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His biography, available on wisconsinhistory.org tells the story.

John Plankinton was a meat packer and businessman. In 1849 he began the packing of beef and hog products, and in 1852 formed a partnership with Frederick Layton under the firm name of Layton and Plankinton Packing Co. In 1861 Layton withdrew and Plankinton continued the business alone until 1863, when he was joined by Phillip D. Armour, and the firm became Plankinton, Armour and Co. (Plankinton & Armour)

Armour had arrived in Milwaukee by way of California where he had been lured by the gold rush.  Whether he made any money on the west coast is apparently open to speculation. According to his biography published in “A History of the City of Chicago,” published in 1900:

Mr Armour returned to the East in 1856, after having a varied experience in mining enterprises, and it was conjectured at the time that he brought back with him considerable of the golden dust, but the facts of this interesting matter are known only to himself.

Another biography, this one published in the January 7, 1901 edition of Chicago’s “Inter Ocean,” described Armour’s Milwaukee years leading up to his association with Plankinton.

Mr. Armour went to Milwaukee, where he had a friend, Frederick S. Miles, who was engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business, and soon became his business partner, the style of the firm being Miles & Armour. The firm was prosperous, but in 1863 Mr. Armour withdrew from it to engage in the shipment of wheat, in which he saw more money. He purchased the largest grain elevator in the city, and was again as successful as could be desired.

In the meantime the pork-packing firm of Plankton & Layton was dissolved, and John Plankinton formed a new firm, in the same business with Mr. Armour, under the style of Plankton & Armour.

It appears that shortly after his association with Plankinton the financial foundation for the Armour business was laid. His “Inter Ocean” biography went on to say:

The firm was successful from the first, and suddenly amassed a great fortune, all through the brilliant management of Mr. Armour. This happened in the spring of 1863, when the war of the rebellion was drawing to a close. At that time pork was selling at $40 a barrel, and the New York operators were buying it recklessly under the impression that it would go to $60. Mr. Armour believed that the war would soon end, and that pork would decline to $20 or less. He laid his plans before his partners, who gave him their approval, and then went posthaste to New York, where he sold pork short for $40 as long as anybody would buy it. Sure enough, pork soon fell to $18, and Mr. Armour and his partners were made millionaires.

In the meantime Phillip’s brother, Herman O. Armour, had started a grain commission business in Chicago sometime in 1862 and by 1864 the two brothers along with Plankinton had joined together in that city under the name H. O. Armour & Co. In 1868 they began packing pork under the name Armour & Co. and by 1870 all the business transacted in Chicago was  done under the Armour & Co. name.

According to a story written years later in the December 2, 1951 edition of the Tribune, the Chicago operation moved to the Union Stock Yards in 1872 where it would remain until the late 1950’s.

The first Armour hog plant was the old Bell house in the Archer Avenue packing center which had been built up during the Civil War. About 1868 packers began to move south to the area just west of the stock yards and Armour followed in 1872.

As early as 1865 Herman left another brother, Joseph, in charge of the Chicago operation and opened an office in New York under the name Armour, Plankinton & Co. The office was first listed in the 1866/1867 New York City directory at 129 Broad Street in Manhattan.

By the end of the decade the Armours had also established another plant, this one in Kansas City run by a fourth brother, Simeone Armour, under the name Plankinton & Armours.

As early as the mid-1870’s a story in the Kansas City Times clearly viewed their operation as the leader in the country and world’s meat packing industry.

Thoroughly identified with the packing business of the whole country, there are no names in the United States more familiar to the trade than those of the Plankinton’s and the Armours, there being two of the former-father and son-and four of the latter-brothers. These six gentlemen stand at the head of beyond all comparisons the heaviest beef and pork packing business of the world…

A May 10, 1880 story published in the The (London) Times featured the American bacon and pork industry and included this description of the Armour business.

A few hogs are slaughtered and salted by the farmers, but the great bulk pass to the packers…

Messrs. Armour & Co. handle nearly 1,000,000 hogs annually at Chicago, and have similar establishments at Milwaukee and at Kansas City, at each of which upwards of 400,000 are slaughtered and packed. From small beginnings in 1860 their business has steadily increased; within six years it has doubled. At the Chicago works at the stock yards, 10,000 pigs are frequently killed daily in summer; 20,000 constitute a full day’s slaughtering in winter. Two thousand tons of meat are sometimes dispatched in a single day from the railway sidings which are conveniently brought into the premises. The work covers 14 acres; the buildings are four stories high, and are being constantly added to. There are six lifts, and hydrants and fire hose are fixed at convenient points on every story. A trained fire brigade is recruited from among the operatives. The premises are insured for a million dollars, the annual premium on different parts of the works varying from 1 to 1 3/4  percent. Two thousand men are employed in summer and 3,500 in winter.

The raw material which keeps this great establishment moving is conveniently found in the contiguous market where 60,000 hogs are sometimes pitched (sold) in a morning, and on one occasion last summer the number ran up to 80,000… Messrs. Armour have large pens and yards where their purchases are fed and watered until required. No fasting is practiced as in England. The grunter has his breakfast even if he is doomed before dinner time.

An advertisement published in the March 18, 1882 edition of the (New Orleans) Times-Democrat, for one of Armour’s agents, McCloskey & Henderson,  provided this list of canned meat products being  produced and shipped out of Chicago by Armour at the time. By this time the business included beef and even chicken soup, as well as pork.

Over the course of several years during the early 1880’s the Armours and Plankinton severed their various business relationships, apparently amicably. As the dust settled, the resultant situation was summarized in the October 26, 1884 edition of the Kansas City Times.

As appears from a dissolution notice published in the advertisement column of THE TIMES this morning, the partnership which has existed for twenty-five years between Mr P.D. Armour and Mr. John Plankinton, has been dissolved, Mr. Armour retiring from the Milwaukee house and Mr. Plankinton from the Kansas City house, which will in the future be known under the firm name of the Armour Packing Company.

The dissolution does not effect either the Chicago or New York houses, as Mr. Plankinton has not been connected with the former business for several years and a few weeks ago sold his interest in the New York house to Mr. H. O. Armour retaining an interest in but one establishment, that of Milwaukee, of which he is the chief owner.

It was during the remainder of the 1800’s that the Armours laid the foundation for much of the company’s expansion into industries related to their meat packing business, adding a glue factory, soap works and a pharmaceutical department among others to their operation.

A story in the January 1, 1886 edition of the Chicago Tribune announced the acquisition of the Wahl Bros. glue factory.

In a circular-letter to the trade, dated December 21, 1885, they announce the purchase of Wahl Bros’ extensive glue factory (which covers eight acres) in this city, together with the good will and all appurtenances. They will continue to produce glue in all it’s varieties, and all other products that their predecessors did, including gelatin, brewers’ isinglass, size for papermakers, bone-meal, neatsfoot oil, etc., etc. The regular packing business of the firm furnishes them with a fresh daily supply of materials, which is such an essential feature in securing superior qualities and perfect results… They employ 300 hands in the glue factory.

Ten years later, another item published in the Chicago Tribune, this one on May 5, 1896, announced the formation of their soap works.

Commencing this day the firm of Armour & Co. has added another feature to their business, to be known as the Armour Soap Works. The new building and plant are situated at Thirty-first and Benson Streets. With the inauguration of the soap works Armour & Co. now utilize everything in the way of raw material from the hog and steer.

An April 17, 1897 advertisement For Oshkosh Wisconsin’s “Kruschke’s” Department Store, confirmed that less than a year later the soap works was manufacturing at least three different soap brands.

Both the glue works and soap works were included in this May 28, 1897 advertisement in the Chicago Chronicle.

By the early 1890’s a pharmaceutical department had also been established  as evidenced by this excerpt from an April 10, 1892 Chicago Tribune article.

In the downtown office of Armour & Co. are several rows of shelves filled with bottles and at first sight a stranger would think the “old man,” as P.D. Armour is called by his employees among themselves, was running a drug store on the side to make both ends meet. In these bottles are a great and unique variety of preparations extracted from animals killed at the yards. The man who manages this department is a duly licensed druggist and physician, and the big packer’s hobby when receiving visitors is to invite them to sample his dried bullock’s blood or desiccated ox gail.

It’s likely that the above mentioned licensed druggist and his department were the very beginning of  Armour Laboratories. According to a November 13, 1949 Tribune story:

One of their earliest (products) was pepsin, a commercially valuable compound recovered from the stomach linings of hogs. For many rears the rudimentary laboratories at Armour’s were called the “pepsin department.”

On April 15, 1900 Phillip Armour formed a corporation that included most, though not all, of the Armour businesses. His reasoning was explained in a February 18, 1900 Chicago Tribune story.

The business of Armour & Co always has been carried on as a partnership. The recent death of Phillip D. Armour Jr., and the illness of Phillip D, Armour, the founder and head of the firm, are said to have supplied the reasons for deciding to put the business in a stock company. For several months the elder Armour has been ill, but it was not believed his illness was sufficiently grave to warrant any change in the management of the business. The death of his son was a severe blow, however, and is said to have determined the plan of incorporation.

The new corporation included the packing houses (excluding the Armour Packing House of Kansas City),  glue factory and soap factory, as well as a felt and hair factory and rail car shops.

The factories that will be taken into the stock company are large concerns. The glue factory is one of the largest in the country. The soap factory of Armour & Co., a more recent establishment, is also an important plant. The hair factory has an output which is said to be unequalled by that of any similar institution. The car factory is used to manufacture and keep in repair the hundreds of cars used in the transportation of the meat and other products of the various Armour industries.

In addition to the manufacturing plants, the packing house includes the large cattle interests of the firm. The agencies of Armour & Co. also will fall into the corporation. In every city of any size in the United States Armour & Co. has an agency for the distribution of dressed beef and the other packing house products of the firm. There are besides agencies in foreign countries. These are to be found in every port of consequence in Europe. In Asia and Africa the firm also carries on its widespread business.

The stockholders of the new corporation were Phillip D. Armour (50%), his son, J. Ogden Armour (25%) and the estate of his deceased son Phillip D. Armour, Jr. (25%). Shortly after the business incorporated, Phillip Sr. also passed away and J. Ogden Armour assumed the presidency. It was J. Ogden Armour who, according to an August 17, 1927 Chicago Tribune story, developed the business into a world wide organization.

Expansion in this country was followed by invasion in the South American field. In 1909 Armour & Co. acquired an interest in an Argentine packing plant. Now (1927) it has in that country five large plants whose products go to the world meat trade.

In the teens their food product menu extended well beyond the by-products of their meat packing business.  A product list published in 1919 bears this out.

According to the February, 1917 edition of a journal called “Advertising & Selling,” their food product line alone had reached over 300 items that were being distributed by 350 branch houses throughout the country. So it was out of necessity that around this time they unified much of their advertising under the “Armour Oval Label”

According to the 1917 story in “Advertising and Selling:”

About two years ago (1915) it was adopted as a permanent trademark for all Armour top grade products, and since then has appeared in all the advertising of these products; newspaper, poster, magazine, window display, booklet advertising, alike, all have the Oval Label as a prominent and permanent feature of the copy. (A label committee , composed of representatives from the selling, operative and executive departments, decides upon the eligibility of a product for the Oval Label, only the highest quality products being admitted to this class.)

Armour Laboratories had also grown significantly from the fledgling department of the early 1890’s.  An advertisement published in the 1919 edition of the “Modern Hospital Year Book,” included the laboratory’s pitch to the medical community.

We are headquarters for the organotherapeutic agents. Our abattoirs supply enormous quantities of glands and membranes from which digestive ferments and endocrine gland preparations are made. Raw material is selected with rigorous care. Nothing but healthy normal material is employed, and this is put into process before any deterioration has set in.

The laboratory is conveniently located. All desiccating is done in vacuum ovens at a low temperature, which prevents injury to active principles.

The advertisement went on to provide a descriptive list of their preparations.

The post World War I years brought pressures on the business that would ultimately, in the 1920’s, transition it from a company closely held by the Armour family to a publicly held company. A feature on J. Ogden Armour published at the time of his death in the August 17, 1927 edition of the Chicago Tribune described the influence of World War I on the corporation.

During the war American packers carried tremendous meat supplies, both for the American armies and for those of European allies. Prices of live stock and meat joined the wartime inflation.The business of Armour & Co. increased sales to around $1,000,000,000 a year…

With the abrupt ending of the war American packers and the allied governments alike had vast quantities of meat on hand. The wartime demand faded. Governments cancelled contracts and threw their surplus stocks on the market for whatever they would bring. Prices of live stock and meat dropped. With the post-war depression the currencies of Europe also plunged down in value.

The result of all this was that the large inventories of American meat packers lost tremendously in value. Their stocks in Europe were paid for in constantly depreciating currencies. It is estimated that Armour & Co. lost around $125,000,000 in two years.

Ultimately in 1923 a refinancing of the business was effected that ultimately resulted in J. Ogden Armour both relinquishing the presidency and selling the majority of his stock.

The Associated Press announced the organizational change on January 3, 1923.

Armour & Co. for the first time since it was organized in 1862, today operated without a member of the Armour family in the president’s chair.

Instead F. Edison White, a worker from the ranks, occupied the controlling station made vacant by the resignation of J. Ogden Armour yesterday, who became chairman of the board of directors.

However, members of the Armour family will retain important positions with the company. Phillip D. Armour III who has been a vice president of the company was designated first vice president, and Lester Armour was continued as a member of the board of directors.

A Chicago Tribune Story, dated February 14, 1925 revealed that the refinancing plan also included an option to purchase the bulk of Mr. Armour’s stock holdings within five years. The story went on to say that the purchase began at that time with a third of his holdings.

Armour & Co., largest of the packing concerns, will be owned by a large body of investors and will cease to be a family corporation with the working out of plans made known yesterday.

It is understood that about one third of the total stock holdings of J. Ogden Armour will be bought by the banking group, which conducted the financial reorganization of Armour & Co. two years ago, and then offered publicly to investors. Later on and as market conditions permit, further offerings of stock will be made.

J. Ogden Armour’s 1927 Chicago Tribune obituary mentioned that Armour’s stock holdings at the time of his death were not large, so it appears much of his remaining stock was sold over the next two years. Four years later in January, 1931 P. D. Armour, the grandson and namesake of the founder, resigned as first vice president. He would be the last member of the Armour family to hold an executive position in the corporation.

Overall the company had its ups and downs but continued to grow through the 1930’s and early 1940’s as evidenced by this financial snapshot included in the Chicago Tribune’s January 23, 1943 edition.

Stockholders were given a glimpse of company progress as indicated by a comparison of balance sheets of last year and of 1923, after a reorganization. Funded debt was reduced from 144 million to 62 million dollars during the 20 years, and sales increased from slightly more than 800 millions to 1 billion 300 millions.

Around this time they were contributing significantly to the World War II effort, so much so that an April 11, 1943 Chicago Tribune story announced that 90 to 95 per cent of Armour’s total production was devoted to war production. As a result, the army and navy awarded their E flag to company officials.

Notice that Armour & Co. had been elected to the award came in a letter from Robert P. Patterson, Undersecretary of War. The letter read in part; “You men and women of Armour & Co. are making an outstanding contribution to victory. You have every reason to be proud of the record you have set, and your practical patriotism stands as an example to all Americans.

Among the company’s specific accomplishments in aiding the war, (Armour)President Eastwood cited the following: “The development of wood veneer drums to replace metal drums, such as are used in the shipment of lard; a new method of smoking ham and bacon for army use which takes 96 hours instead of seven days; the telescoping of lambs to save shipping space.”

He also pointed to a new product “Tushonka,” a canned pork popular with Russians; to a new style of “stuffing horn” for packaging of ground beef; and, finally to the formula for “Pemmican,” an emergency ration carried by airplanes and ships.

The award also recognized the achievements of Armour Laboratories.

Brig. Gen. C. C. Hillman, acting Surgeon General, Washington D. C., said in his statement of the award to Armour Laboratories that they had “given a rich endowment, not only to the war effort but to the entire field of medicine. Listed on the chart of Armour’s achievements will be their production of ligatures, insulin, and other medical supplies for the military service. In addition to this, your conversion of facilities for the absorption of great production loads all shall be listed on the war chart victory.”

After the war the company continued to introduce new products and innovations. In 1948 the company introduced their famous brand, DIAL deodorant soap.

An August 11, 1948 Chicago Tribune advertisement bragged that the soap was so popular that after being introduced, it immediately sold out.

In the mid-1950’s Armour became the first company to vacuum package their bacon as well as other meats. A May 5, 1956 Chicago Tribune feature provided the details.

Armour was the very first to discover how to keep bacon slicer-fresh from packing house to your pan. Old style packages of bacon usually lost freshness after a week or 10 days, so Armour research set about developing a package that would maintain freshness for three weeks.

Since air was known to be the villain that made bacon lose flavor, the obvious solution was to remove the air and pack bacon in a vacuum.

Obvious? Well not exactly. While vacuum packed jars and cans have been used for years, the requirement that a bacon package be both flexible and transparent gave the problem new complexity.

Several hundred kinds of materials, and nearly as many different shapes and types of packages were tried and discarded.

Finally, a new plastic was tested and found to have just the right combination of strength and pliability for use in newly developed vacuum packaging machines.

Subsequent taste tests revealed that bacon packaged the new way keeps fresh much longer than was once thought possible. This fundamental research on bacon packaging was so successful that it soon led to vacuum packaging of many other products.

Armour Laboratories was also making significant advances during the late late 1940’s and 1950’s. Some were enumerated in a December 2, 1951 story.

Recently the science of animal utilization has reached its highest point at Armour & Co., which is now headed by Frederick Specht. The company views its laboratory accomplishments primarily from a humanitarian, rather than a money making angle.

The outstanding achievement was development of the pituitary hormone , ACTH, which was ordered into production in the early summer of 1949. It has been used in treating arthritis and 20 other diseases. A later development is trypsin, which has the ability to turn dead flesh into liquid without damaging live tissue. Trypsin, like the insulin used by diabetics, come from a meat animal’s pancreas.

Hormones are not the only medical products of meat packing. Liver extracts are used in treating anemia, many products are made from animal blood, and a stomach lining substance is used for ulcer.

As the 1960’s approached the overall corporate picture was apparently beginning to lose some shine. In 1959 Armour discontinued all slaughtering operations in Chicago. A story dated June 9, 1959 in the Chicago Tribune detailed the facts and reasoning behind the decision.

Armour & Co. announced Monday that it will discontinue all slaughtering operations at six plants, including the one at Chicago…

Approximately 5,000 employees will be affected at all plants, including 2,000 in Chicago. Armour employs nearly 3,000 persons in its Chicago unit, but not all of them work in slaughtering operations. Such Chicago operations as refining of fats and oils, wool pulling, soap manufacturer, and sales and distribution will be continued. In addition, Armour will continue to buy cattle on the Chicago market for its eastern plants…

The company said there were several basic causes for its inability to reverse substantial losses encountered at these plants. These include obsolescence of buildings, many of which were constructed more than 50 years ago; shifts in live stock numbers sectionally; declining receipts of live stock at some markets; and a general and widely recognized condition of excess production capacity in the meat packing industry.

Ultimately Armour was acquired by the Greyhound Corporation in 1970. This strange marriage is explained by company histories.com.

The country’s leader in the motor coach industry since 1930, Greyhound under chairperson and CEO Gerald H. Trautman had begun to diversify its operations in the 1960’s in response to declining bus ticket sales. As automobiles and airline tickets became less expensive and bus line profits dwindled, Greyhound acquired small companies in the fields of automobile leasing, money orders, insurance, and catering. Greyhound board members were approached by Armour in the late 1960’s when General Host threatened Armour with a hostile takeover, and Greyhound was persuaded to add Armour to its subsidiaries. The 1970 $400 million purchase was Greyhound’s first major acquisition. To reduce its investment, Greyhound immediately sold $225 million of Armour assets, retaining only the meatpacking and consumer products subsidiaries. The meatpacking operation was renamed Armour Foods, while the consumer products operation was renamed Armour-Dial.

Less than a year later, and after more than 100 years, the Arizona Republic announced that, now a subsidiary of Greyhound, the Armour headquarters was leaving Chicago for Phoenix Arizona.

Greyhound Corp. the nation’s 29th largest firm, and its big subsidiary, Armour and Co., are moving from Chicago to Phoenix.

Gerald H. Trautman of Paradise Valley, chairman and chief executive said the move will affect ” a few hundred”employees of the headquarters staffs of the Greyhound Corp. and of these subsidiaries:

Armour and Co., Greyhound Bus Lines, Greyhound Leasing and Financial Corp., and Greyhound Computer Corp., except its service center personnel.

The largest of Greyhound’s subsidiaries is Armour and Co., acquired in 1970. From its start in meat packing, that firm has diversified into a modern industrial complex.

Today Armour meat products continue to be sold by Smithfield Foods and are still marketed under an oval label.

Over the years I’ve found two Armour bottles, both small and mouth blown. One embossed “Armour Laboratories,” is colored brown and approximately one ounce in size. The Armour Laboratory Pharmaceutical List, published in the 1919 “Modern Hospital Yearbook” included a one ounce bottle size for both pepsin and pancreatin powders.

The second bottle is approximately two ounces in size and embossed “Armour and Company,” not “Armour Laboratories,” which leads me to believe its not a pharmaceutical bottle. Armour produced lemon, orange and vanilla flavoring extracts in several size bottles, including two ounces, so I’m leaning in that direction.

 

ED. Pinaud, Paris

Not far from Paris, on the Ourcq Canal, is the thriving town of Pantin, famous for the works of Ed. Pinaud, where is manufactured the delightful perfumery which has made its name so widely known.

That’s the opening paragraph of an October, 1893 Merck Report feature on Ed. Pinaud. A French perfume and cosmetics line originally founded by Edouard Pinard, their brand strength was and continues to be such that, although produced for almost two centuries and under several different company names, the brand name “Pinaud” has remained steadfast.

There are several different versions of Pinaud’s early history, but I’ll stick with the one presented on the web site of Washington D. C.’s Dumberton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Ed. Pinaud (Ed. Pinaud’s Perfumery) is a Parisian perfume and cosmetics company founded by Edouard Pinaud (1810 to 1868) in 1830 at 37, boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris. He named the business A la Corbelle Fleurie. In the 1850’s, Emile Meyer (1817 to 1888) became a partner and opened a second shop called Parfumerie de la Noblesse. After Pinaud’s death, his son-in-law, Victor Klotz (1836 to 1906) took over the company, which was renamed Victor Klotz et Cie although its products were sold under the Ed. Pinaud name.

The 1893 Merck feature hinted at the size of the Paris operation just before the turn of the century.

To return to the factory at Pantin, which is an imposing building, we find that no less than 200 hands are employed, and, if that does not give an idea of the magnitude of the business transacted, the sight of several private freight cars bearing the firm’s name, most assuredly do so.

The presence of Pinaud’s products in the United States dates back as least as far as the mid-1840’s. The earliest Pinaud reference I can find was in a newspaper advertisement for the business of G. Saunders & Son, located at 177 Broadway in New York City. Printed in several October and November, 1845 editions of the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, the advertisements touted cosmetic and shaving products under a wide range of categories one of which was “perfumery,” where it stated:

PERFUMERY – The most choice of Guerlain’s, Lubin’s, Prevost’s, Ede’s, Patey’s, Roussel’s and Pinaud’s Extracts, with a full assortment of Perfumery, in boxes suitable for presents.

This October 13, 1855 Brooklyn Evening Star advertisement for a company called the McNary Brothers mentioned Pinaud products “Cosmetique” and “Almond Soap” by name.

Back then Pinaud’s business in the U. S. was with firms like G. Saunders & Son and McNary Brothers who apparently imported the company’s products directly from Paris. That being said, there was no orchestrated plan for growth in this country. According to Merck’s 1893 feature that all began to change in the late 1870’s.

Long ago demand for the Ed. Pinaud’s goods necessitated the establishment of branch offices in London, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Melbourne, and other leading cities of the world; but, strange to say, only within the last seventeen years has the house been represented in this country. Their first New York office was at 10 Cortlandt Street, subsequently moved to 496 Broadway; but very little business was done, and our visitors to Europe continued to bring back dainty bottles of Ed. Pinaud’s perfumery, sachets, and sweetly odorous soaps as Parisian souvenirs, in ignorance that they could have purchased them here.

In May 1890, the agency was transformed into a branch house with Emile Utard in charge, and soon after “Parfumerie Ed. Pinaud” was a sign which became naturalized and the goods, once being known, leaped into popular favor.

The 10 Cortlandt Street address was actually the address of Henry Dreyfus & Co., who was listed there (sometimes 6 Cortlandt St.) as a perfumer (sometimes importer) from 1880 up through 1887. In a series of 1886 advertisements that ran in several U. S. cities they referred to themselves as Ed. Pinaud’s “sole agent for the United States.”

 

During the same time Dreyfus also listed another office in Manhattan at 13 (and later 25) Maiden Lane. That office listing included the occupational heading of “diamonds,” so Pinaud’s lack of growth mentioned in the above story could certainly have been, at least partially due to Dreyfus’s other interests.

In any event, by 1890, Utard, not Dreyfus, was listed as a “perfumer,” now at the 496 Broadway address. A year later the company was listed at 42 East 14th street where they would remain until the  early 1900’s.

The feature goes on to name a wide variety of perfumes, essences, toilet preparations and perfumed toilet soaps being produced by Pinaud in the late 1890’s. Here’s an advertisement touting their “latest creations,” in the Spring, 1898.

Around the same time, a December 1897 item found in the Druggist Circular and Chemical Gazette advertised a line of extracts that included 37 scents with names like Lilly of the Valley, New Mown Hay and Spring Flowers.

Men were also in luck with a number of hair and shaving products. This December 1891 advertisement included products like “Brillantine” (for hair and moustache brilliancy and softness), “Eau De Quinine” (the king of all hair tonics), “Cosmetique” (whose reputation for excellence is universal), and “Lavender Water” (for use after shaving has no equal).

They even advertised dental products as evidenced by this December, 1897 advertisement.

Product’s Pinaud called their “leading specialties” were included in this price list published in the October, 1897 edition of the “Practical Druggist and Pharmaceutical Review of Reviews.”

The company’s growth through the turn of the century lead to their construction of a new United States headquarters in 1903. Located in Manhattan at 84 – 90  Fifth Avenue, Pinaud advertisements in the following years would mention its address as simply “the Pinaud Building.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described its opening in a March 6, 1903 story, referring to the new building as a “skyscraper.” (By my count it’s 11 stories.)

NEW ED. PINAUD BUILDING

On the site formerly occupied by the Old Guard Armory, the proprietor of the Ed.Pinaud perfumery has erected a skyscraper that contains all the latest devices in construction and equipment. To celebrate the opening yesterday Victor Klotz, the proprietor, tendered a reception during the afternoon to his friends and customers. The building is at Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street, Manhattan.

Mr. Klotz came from Paris to attend the opening. The offices, all newly fitted up and finely decorated, were adorned with French and American colors and floral pieces. A collation was served, during which corks popped merrily.

The story goes on to credit advertising for fueling much of their expansion.

The growth in popularity of Pinaud’s perfumes in the United States is due alike to their fine quality and business ability of the American manager, Emil Utard. During his incumbency of thirteen years it has necessitated a constant increase of room and facilities. Mr. Utard attributes his success to the wide and unique advertising used in popularizing Pinaud’s perfumes.

In an interview with Emile Utard, published in the February 12, 1902 edition of Printers Ink, he stated that the company began investing in advertising at the time they established their American branch in 1890. Since then, in the following twelve years, according to Utard:

The volume of our trade in America has grown six-fold since we began advertising.

The interview goes on to say that at the time they didn’t have much experience with the daily newspapers but did advertise heavily in a wide variety of magazines.

If we like the character of the publication, and have a fair estimate of its circulation, the price being right, we adopt it.

The interview also mentioned mass transit advertising.

We are, however, liberal patrons of street cars and of the elevated system. This year we are in all the surface cars of the city and on the stations of the elevated.

Another of their advertising avenues that caught my attention involved what they called “schemes.”

But really our greatest efforts, those on which we expend the most thought and have our greatest outlay, are our schemes. Among these, those that have to do with theaters engage our attention most, and yield the best results…

Concerning theaters, we own between twenty and twenty-five drop-curtains in good theaters in leading cities throughout the country. The better the theater the more benefit it is to us. Each of these curtains is a specimen of the scene painter’s art. All representing some view of the Riviera, along the Mediterranean Sea, where our flowers are grown…

Among the drop curtains of this kind that we now own are those of the Casino in this City (New York); the Alvin of Pittsburg; the Park in Boston; the Century in St. Louis; the Academy of Music in Montreal, Canada; the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia; the Dallas Opera House of Dallas, Tex.; the Boyd Theater of Omaha, Neb; the Grand Opera House of New Orleans.

We perfume a great many theaters in addition. For instance, we have no less than six in this city, which we serve every night. One of our young employees makes the round and sprays the lobby before the performance and the house during the performance. We have consequent mention made of this nightly in the respective programs.

By the mid to late 1890’s, Pinaud products were  pretty much included in drug and department store advertisements nation wide. This item appeared in a May 13, 1899 department store advertisement in the Salt Lake (City, Utah) Herald.

You could even pick up a bottle of Eau de Quinine while in Helena, Montana as evidenced by this November 19, 1896 advertisement in the Anaconda (Montana) Standard.

Victor Klotz continued to run the business under the name Victor Klotz & Co. until his death in 1906. At that point his sons, Henry and George took control of the company and while the product line continued to be called Pinaud, the name of the company was changed to H & G Klotz & Co.

It was around this time that the company apparently added the daily newspapers to their advertising strategy. Between 1905 and 1908 you could see a number of celebrities including Lilian Russel touting Eau de Quinine and Lilac Vegetal in the local newspapers.

While other products were mentioned, it was these two in particular, Eau de Quinine and Lilac Vegetal that were the focal point of their advertising from the early 1900’s up through the 1920’s. In a series of advertisements in 1911 they were even offering sample bottles for five cents.

Sometime around 1927 the name of the U. S. business was changed to Pinaud, Inc., and the business moved to a new location in Manhattan at 220 East 21st Street. It appears that in addition to distribution, by this time they were also using this new facility to manufacture products as well.

By the mid 1930’s the Klotz brothers were no longer running the company, or at least the New York operation. The 1931 NYC directory named George Klotz as president of Pinaud, Inc. but by 1938 the listing of Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States named Jacques Heilbronn as President.

During the late 1930’s and early 1940’s the business was still profitable but apparently headed in the wrong direction. Court records (Perfumers Manufacturing Corporation, Transferee Petitioner, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent) pick up the story from there.

The business of Pinaud, Inc. had been a profitable one prior to World War II, but it suffered several reversals after the war because of its obligations , usual in the perfume and toiletry trade, to accept sizable returns of unsold merchandise from customers who had purchased and paid for its products but had failed to sell them. The volume of returns was large and Pinaud, Inc., found itself required to issue substantial merchandise credits to its customers representing a liability to deliver merchandise for which it will not be paid. To add to its difficulties, Pinaud, Inc., found itself unable to meet its cash liabilities.

The court records went on to say that Pinaud, Inc. eventually sold the business.

Pusuant to an agreement entered into on June 24, 1947, Pinaud, Inc., transferred its entire business to Ed. Pinaud, Inc. (then known as Barbara Alice, Inc.),  which was, and is, owned by persons unrelated to the owners of Pinaud, Inc…

…Ed. Pinaud, Inc. was granted the exclusive general agency to manufacture, sell and distribute “Pinaud” products for 15 years with the option to renew for additional terms of 15 years.

At this point Ed. Pinaud, Inc.,was operating under the umbrella of the Joubert group that, two years later, in 1949, merged with the Nestle-LeMur Company. The merger was announced in the July 17, 1949 edition of the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant.

Nestle-LeMur Company announces shareholders have voted to merge the company with the Joubert group of companies in New York and New Jersey. The Joubert group includes Joubert Cie Incorporated and Irresistible Incorporated which controls Blue Waltz Incorporated, Irresistible Blue Waltz Exporters Incorporated and Ed. Pinaud Incorporated…

The new firm would keep the Nestle-Le Mur name.

It appears Ed. Pinaud, Inc. continued to operate under that name as a subsidiary of Nestle-Le Mur up through the early 1980’s and, based on this September 12, 1980 advertisement in the Belleville (N. J.) Times, they continued to operate out of the 22o East 21st Street location.

Nestle-LeMur was merged into a subsidiary of Kleer Vu Industries in December, 1983.

Currently the the Pinaud  brand is owned by American International Industries and today they sell a line of men’s toiletries under the name “Pinaud Clubman.” Their web site states:

Grooming Generations for Over 200 Years

The Pinaud Building, built by Victor Klotz in 1903, still exists to this day on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street.

 

The building at 220 East 21st Street is currently occupied by the School of Visual Arts.

The bottle I found is mouth blown and resembles the smaller Eau de Quinine bottle pictured on this turn of the century poster.

       

According to this 1906/1907 price list published by the Des Moines Drug Company, Eau de Quinine was sold in 4oz, 8oz, 1/2 liter and liter bottles. It’s certainly the 4 oz size.

On a final note, Eau de Quinine is still available today, albeit in plastic bottles.

 

 

Colgate & Company, New York

Originally a candle and laundry soap manufacturer, Colgate & Company was founded by William Colgate around the turn of the nineteenth century. The business ultimately grew into today’s Colgate-Palmolive, a global household and consumer product corporation with over 38,000 employees.

William Colgate was the son of Robert Colgate, an English farmer who was forced to leave England as a result of his political sentiments that favored the democracies of France and America.

According to William Colgate’s obituary, in the March 26, 1857 edition of the New York Tribune, in March, 1795 the family sailed for America on the ship “Eliza,” arriving in Baltimore after passage of 70 days. As a young boy, Colgate lived with his father in Baltimore before moving to New York City. The obituary picks up the story from there.

In 1804, William Colgate, at the age of 21, left his father’;s house and came, a comparative stranger, to the City of New York. He had scarcely a cent that he could call his own. His purpose. however, was fixed; and in his pursuit, he entered the counting-room of John Slidel & Co., then the largest tallow chandlers in the city, located at No. 50 Broadway…The salary proposed was small. But it was not the salary, it was the business that he wished; and in a very short time he accomplished his purpose. He was soon transferred from the manufacturing to the sales department; and at the end of three years, when the firm dissolved, Mr. Colgate was its principal business manager.

At the age of 23, in the year 1806 Mr. Colgate commenced the soap and candle business for himself in Dutch Street…

It appears that the business was originally organized as a partnership between Colgate and Francis Smith. The company was first listed in the 1807 Longworth’s New York Register and City Directory as “Smith and Colgate, tallow chandlers,” with an address of 6 Dutch Street. A rendering of the original Dutch Street location was included in a profile of Colgate’s business published in the July 1921 edition of Printers Ink Monthly.

The Printer’s Ink story went on to reveal why Colgate chose the Dutch Street location for his business.

In meeting the first problem that confronted him – the selection of a location for his business – the young soap and candle maker exhibited good judgement for the Mayor of New York lived on Dutch Street, and in the immediate vicinity of his little factory were the homes of many other prominent men of the day. Thus it followed that the influential citizens of the city must of necessity become familiar with his business by passing it every day. And the out-of-town friends who visited the Mayor and his neighbors must need see the Colgate factory and carry back home with them that impression of metropolitan prestige for which even today businesses spend fabulous sums in erecting towering buildings and great sky signs in New York and other large cities.

The partnership of Smith & Colgate was listed until 1815 when it apparently dissolved. Subsequently William Colgate was listed individually as a tallow chandler at 6 Dutch Street until 1820 when the listing changed to William Colgate & Company. Colgate would add the manufacture of toilet soaps to the business in 1847, continuing  to mange the company until his death in 1857. At that point, his son Samuel Colgate and nephew Charles C. Colgate took over and the company name listed in the directories was shortened to simply Colgate & Company.

According to the Printer’s Ink story, the two younger Colgate’s continued to add the manufacture of new products to the business.

Still studying the trend of the market as had the elder Colgate, and ever on the alert to add new products that might appropriately be made and sold by a soap manufacturer, the two young Colgates decided to add perfumes to the Colgate line, and in the early 60’s this was done with great success.

Then in line with the demand for a perfumed toilet soap, in 1869 or 187o the first kettle of the now famous Cashmere Bouquet was made.

During this period, advertisements for their perfumed toilet soaps began to appear in the newspapers. The first ones I could find referenced brands named “Honey Toilet Soap” and “Aromatic Vegetable Soap.”  The advertisements below appeared in 1867 (Hartford Conn Courant) and 1869 (Rutland Vt. Daily Herald) respectively.

By the early 1870’s, their famous Cashmere Bouquet toilet soap had been added to what had become a long list of toilet soap brands. That list of at least 17 different brands appeared in  several August/September 1872 editions of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press.

According to this November 5, 1873 advertisement in the Buffalo Commercial, a Cashmere Bouquet perfume soon followed.

This delightful perfume will be appreciated by all who have enjoyed the lasting fragrance of Colgate & Co.’s Cashmere Bouquet Soap, which is so universally popular.

It was around the same time that, according to the Colgate-Palmolive web site, Colgate introduced their “antiseptic dental powder” sold in a jar. As evidenced by this November 17, 1895 Frank Brothers Department Store advertisement in the Chicago Tribune, by the mid-1890’s they were selling toothpaste in a tube as well.

This 1911 advertisement, for the Paine Drug Company in Rochester New York, provided a listing of the Colgate products they carried at the time. It provides a feel for how much Colgate’s product line had expanded in their first century.

This expanded product line required expansion of both their office and manufacturing facilities as well.

A story in the January 21, 1906 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle dedicated to Colgate’s 100th anniversary celebration described the expansion of the company’s physical plant over their first 100 years stating that in 1847 the company added a Jersey City factory and in 1865 they expanded their New York facilities extending their Dutch Street offices through into John Street.

Around this time their New York City directory listings for Colgate began to include addresses on both ends of their block; 6 Dutch Street and 55 John Street. Their Jersey City factory was situated along the Hudson River waterfront. Initially located on the corner of York and Greene Streets, according to a July 17, 1988 New York Times article, by the 1890’s it encompassed the full block bounded by York, Greene, Hudson and Grand Streets.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 100th anniversary story went on to provide this description of the company facilities as they existed in 1906.

…by now offices and perfume manufactory have overflowed until they cover very nearly a third of the New York block, and the Jersey City factory, just equipped with new buildings, fills out the entire block and portions of other blocks in the neighborhood. Here are the greatest soap kettles or “pans” in the world, four stories high (five of the largest hold 700,000 pounds each), also the original pan of 1847, which was considered a giant in those days. William Colgate was told that it was folly to build such a big “pan,” that he could never use it. That “pan” is, however, a pigmy beside those of today. Only soap is not made now by building a fire underneath as in the old days. Coils of steam pipes run inside the monster kettles.

Samuel’s Colgate’s biography contained in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol XIII, published in 1906, adds to the picture by describing the extent of Colgate’s perfume operation in that centennial year.

As a producer of perfumery the firm is the most extensive in the United States, and stands second or third in the entire world. In the valley of the Var, France, bounded by the towns of Grasse, Nice and Cannes, many acres of flowers are cultivated for the manufacture of perfumery, and Colgate & Co. take the total output of a factory in which the essence of fragrancy is extracted. Over 100 tons of rose leaves are thus used annually, besides large quantities of other flowers.

The company continued to occupy their Dutch Street/John Street location in New York City until 1910. At that point it appears that most of the operation had moved to New Jersey although they did continue to list a New York location at 199 Fulton Street from 1911 to 1922 and later 403 Broadway in 1925.

The Colgate Company ultimately merged with the Palmolive Peet Company in July, 1928. A well established company in their own right, the Palmolive Company was formed in 1864, and on January 1, 1927, they had acquired the Peet Brothers Company, which had been established in 1872. A July 11, 1928 UP story covered their merger with Colgate:

PALMOLIVE, COLGATE MERGER IS PLANNED

Directors of the Palmolive-Peet Company and Colgate and Company have agreed to a plan of consolidation of the two firms, subject to action of stockholders. The merger would be effective as of July 1, 1928, if approved, it was announced today.

The name of the new company would be the Colgate Palmolive Peet Company.

The new organization will have large manufacturing units at Jersey City,  N.  J., Milwaukee, Chicago, Jeffersonville, Ind., Kansas City, Kan., Berkeley Calif., and Portland, Ore.

The executive offices will be located at Chicago. No public financing is contemplated at present.

The following officers were reported as probable selections: Sidney M. Colgate, chairman of the board; Charles S. Pearce, president and general manager, and A. W. Peet, chairman of the executive committee.

Later, in 1953, the company would shorten its name to Colgate-Palmolive.

The story mentioned that Colgate’s Jersey City plant would continue to operate as one of Colgate Palmolive’s manufacturing units, which it did for another 50 plus years, ultimately expanding to a footprint of six city blocks.  Finally, in 1985 the company announced its closing. The announcement was covered in the January 15, 1985 edition of The (Paterson N.J.) News.

Colgate – Palmolive Plant in N. J. to Close

The Colgate-Palmolive Co. plant on the Jersey City waterfront, whose 54-foot high clock is a landmark, will close in three years, the company said yesterday.

The company is closing the plant because its products can be made more cheaply at factories in the Midwest, a company spokesman said. Colgate-Palmolive expects the plant closing to result in a savings of $20 million per year.

Today, the initial Jersey City block occupied by the Colgate factory is home to the tallest building in New Jersey, a 79 story luxury condominium, however, another Jersey City  building in the area, located at 81 Greene Street, provides a reminder of it’s former use.

According to the “Library of Congress” this building served as the principal manufacturing facility for the company’s personal care products from 1915 to 1987.

I’ve found two Colgate & Co. bottles over the years. The first is machine made and is embossed with the Colgate & Co. trademark (C & Co enclosed within a double circle). It most likely contained one of their toilet water brands. It matches a Colgate bottle recently offered for sale on the internet labeled “Dactyus Toilet Water.”

The Dractylis brand was included in the 1911 Paine Drug Store advertisement presented previously in this post. Machine made, it likely doesn’t date much earlier than the 1911 advertisement and certainly no later than the 1928 Colgate-Palmolive merger.

The other is a mouth blown jar embossed Colgate & Co./ Perfumers / New York. In spite of the embossing it looks more like this labeled tooth powder jar to me…who knows???

I couldn’t end this post without at least touching on the iconic Colgate Clock  that has overlooked the Hudson River and served as an identifying symbol of the company since 1908. Designed and built in connection with Colgates centennial anniversary, according to a New Jersey City University Internet Post entitled “Jersey City Past and Present,” it sat atop the roof of an eight-story Colgate warehouse at the southeast corner of York and Hudson Streets.

It was officially set running on May 25, 1908. A special dispatch to the San Francisco Chronicle covered the start-up.

The largest clock in the world was set going today on top of Colgate & Co.’s eight-story factory building on the river front in Jersey City. It is visible for miles along the Hudson River and can be clearly seen from the New York skyscrapers.

Mayor Wittpen of Jersey City pressed the button which started the mechanism of the giant timekeeper, and when the immense minute hand began moving the boats on the river joined in a chorus of whistles.

The dial is thirty-eight feet in diameter, with an area of 1,134 square feet. The next largest clock – that on the Philadelphia City Hall, has a diameter of twenty-five  feet and a face area of 490 feet. The diameter of the Westminster clock in London is twenty-two and one-half feet and its dial area is 393 feet. The minute hand of the Colgate clock is twenty feet long and weighs nearly a third of a ton. The clock’s weight is approximately six tons. At night red electric bulbs mark the hours and white electric bulbs show the minute spaces.

The above story attempts to convey the size of the clock but, as they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and the following photographs put the clock’s size in perspective. The first found in the November, 1908 issue of a publication called “Wood Craft” compares the clock to a worker (to the right of the clock) standing on a support beam. The next two, found in the May 23, 1908 issue of “Scientific American” appear to be construction photos that show the clock’s hands in relation to construction workers.

A lot of publicity was generated around the design and construction of the clock of which Colgate took full advantage. This advertisement in the June 20, 1908 edition of “Collier’s” linked the clock to a number of their products.

A July 17, 1988 story in the New York Times suggested that the clock was worth more than simply advertising to the Colgate Company.

The Colgate sign and clock was a sophisticated piece of advertising, comparable to the landmark headquarters buildings of the Metropolitan Life Insurance and Woolworth Companies of the same period. It was seen by the thousands aboard ships trafficking New York Harbor. In 1910, Colgate moved its executive offices to the Jersey City complex and the clock, and sign, became for the public the very symbol of the company’s corporate identity.

The 1988 New York Times story went on to say that:

In 1924 the Colgate clock was replaced with a new larger one, 50 feet in diameter of practically identical design – including the trademark octagon dial shape. Mayor Frank Hague turned on the new clock on December 1…

In 1983, Colgate, long out of the perfume business took down the “Soaps-Perfumes” lettering on the sign, replacing it with an inartistically drawn toothpaste tube representing one of its most identifiable products.

The original 38 foot clock was relocated to Colgate’s newly opened Clarksville Indiana plant where according to Images of America – Clarksville Indiana, by Jane Sarles, it was lit for the first time on November 17, 1924.

“Secret Louisville: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure,”By Jill Halpern, completes the story.

An enduring vision in downtown Louisville for as long as locals can remember, the bright red clock (when lit) usually shows the correct time, or at least close, 100 years later, despite the fact that Colgate-Palmolive moved its operations out of town in 2008. The clock’s continued operation is likely because the facility was placed on Indiana Landmarks list of 10 Most Endangered Landmarks.

The nomination to place the Clarksville plant, including the clock, on the National Register of Historic Places was announced in the December 13, 2013 edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal December 14, 2013.

The newer 50 foot version of the clock still resides on the Jersey City waterfront next to the Goldman Sachs Tower and is maintained by Goldman Sachs.

Calder’s Dentine

Calder’s Dentine, usually called Calder’s Saponaceous Dentine, was a tooth powder developed by Providence, Rhode Island native Albert L. Calder.  Although it was comprised of nothing more than chalk (56%) and soap (44%) flavored with wintergreen, it became popular in the 1860’s and was sold well into the 1920’s. According to Merriam-Webster the word saponaceous is based on the Latin word “sapo,” meaning soap.

Weeks & Potters Revised Catalog of Foreign and Domestic Drugs, published in 1879, included an advertisement promoting it “for cleansing, preserving and beautifying the teeth.” The advertisement went on to deliver much the same message as today’s toothpaste manufacturers.

This agreeable and efficacious Tooth Powder, established by more than twenty years experience, has received the sanction of the members of the Dental and Medical profession generally, and by them it is daily recommended and prescribed. It is as pleasant in the application as it is excellent in its effects; it speedily renders the teeth white and smooth, the gums healthful, red and firm; and by frequent use will preserve them in this desirable condition. It gradually but effectively removes tartar, and destroys the parasitical animalcule which neglect may have permitted to collect and prevents their further accumulation, thus serving as a complete beautifier and preserver of the teeth.

Another early advertisement, this one printed in the June 10, 1872 edition of Davenport Iowa’s Quad-City Times sent the same message but a little more succinctly:

Everyone having teeth and wishing to keep them should use Calder’s Dentine. Sold everywhere.

According to Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island, Vol 2, published in 1908, Albert L. Calder was born and raised in Providence Rhode Island and spent some time in Boston before returning to Providence for good in 1850. At that time:

He engaged in the apothecary business with his brother George B. Calder, this arrangement continuing from February 1851, until June, 1853. In the latter year the store which stood on Westminster Street, where is now Dorrance Street, was burned out in a disastrous conflagration. Mr. Calder at once bought the lease of the (nearby) lot on Westminster Street where the new part of the Journal office is now located, erected a building for his business purposes, and continued there until he sold out in 1885, to retire from the apothecary business, in order to give his special attention to the manufacture of Calder’s Dentine, a proprietary article which was well and favorably known throughout the country.

Information in the Providence city directories supports and adds to the above narrative. Calder’s, initial apothecary  was listed in both the 1852 and 1853 directories at 151 Westminster Street. His brother George Calder was listed as a clerk at the same address. After the fire caused Calder to relocate in 1854, his new address was listed as 161 Westminster Street. At this point he was the sole proprietor of the business, his brother George having started his own apothecary business at 21 Westminster Street under the name Chambers & Calder.

Albert Calder remained at 161 Westminster Street through 1886. Although later advertisements mention that Calder’s Saponaceous Dentine had been manufactured since 1850, it was during this time that the product apparently gained prominence. This is evidenced by Calder’s annual advertisement in the Providence City Directory

As late as 1866, Calder  focused on his retail pharmacy business that in addition to medicines also included perfumes, soda water, cigars and artists materials. There was no mention of Calder’s Dentine.

It wasn’t until 1867 that he even mentioned in small font that he was the “sole proprietor of Calder’s Saponaceous Dentine.”

Several years later, in 1870, the product had achieved much greater visibility.

It was some time in late 1885 or early 1886 that he gave up the retail portion of his business, selling the pharmacy to two local druggists. The sale was announced in an April 15, 1886 news item in the Pharmaceutical Record.

Mr. A. L. Calder of Providence R. I. has sold his well known pharmacy on Westminster Street to Harvey I. Leith and E. C. Danforth, both pharmacists of excellent repute of that city. The new firm is Leith & Danforth, and they will certainly receive, from all who know them, congratulations and good wishes in their new home and for great business prosperity.

Calder proceeded to construct his new office and laboratory for the manufacture of Calder’s Dentine at 181-183 North Main Street in Providence where it was first listed in 1887.

In 1890, Albert Calder’s son, Charles Albert Calder, joined the business. His biographical profile also contained in Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island, stated:

In 1890 he became interested with his father in the manufacture of Calder’s Dentine, and upon his father’s death succeeded him in that business.

Albert’s death occurred on May 24, 1899 after which Charles was listed as “manager”at the North Main Street address up through 1906 or 1907. The 1908 directory stated that Charles A. Calder had removed to Diamond Hill so it appears that he was no longer associated with the business by then.

On January 14, 1908 the Albert L Calder Company incorporated and a year later, on January 5, 1909, a new company, the Calder Dentine Company, was also incorporated. The relationship between the two corporations was described in the 1910 Providence City Directory listing.

CALDER DENTINE CO. The lessees of The Albert L. Calder Co., dentine and toilet articles. 183 North Main.

The accompanying advertisement in the directory simply mentioned the Calder Dentine Co.

Sometime during this period the business apparently formed an association with Samuel Everett, founder of  Everett & Barron, a large shoe polish manufacturer. In 1912 both firms were utilizing the same address, 217 Canal Street and according to the 1915 edition of “Who’s Who in New England Samuel Everett was serving as president and treasurer of both Everett & Barron and the Calder Dentine Co.

Both companies listed 217 Canal Street as their address up through the late teens. At times the Calder Dentine Co. also listed 181-183 North Main as another address so it’s likely that they maintained their manufacturing facilities at that location.

In the early 1920’s both companies relocated to 359 Eddy Street, also in Providence. The Calder Dentine Company remained listed there until the mid 1930’s but the product itself disappeared from newspaper advertised drug store price lists by the mid-1920’s.  Everett & Barron was still listed in the Providence directories well into the 1960’s.

Over the course of its history Calder’s Dentine was sold in 25 cent and 50 cent sizes. Smaller 10 cent sample sizes were also available. The bottle I found is a small mouth blown jar, two inches in diameter and three inches high. It matches the smaller of the two bottles shown in this October, 1900 advertisement published in Parsons Magazine suggesting it was the 25 cent size.

A labeled example of the 25 cents size that recently appeared for sale on the internet is pictured below.

This 1901 Cosmopolitan advertisement indicated that if you were looking to purchase a bottle you had to look for it packaged in a paper wrapper.

Finally, in addition to being available in bottles, this 1907 Life Magazine advertisement stated that Calder’s Dentine was also sold in metal containers. A metal example also recently appeared on the internet.