Zephyr Used & Rare Books has published their catalogue of Spring Attractions. Some are attractive, others attracting. They are fascinating to peruse. There's a lot of early 20th century material, some from the 19th century as well. The content is too varied to describe. Each is its own unique piece. Here are a few of these items we found in this latest Zephyr catalogue.
Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor and a sharp businessman. He turned his inventions into businesses. He had many of them, and in 1889, most were combined to form one new company, Edison General Electric. In 1892, this company was merged with a competitor to form the historic company, General Electric. Edison's companies had initially been formed in Manhattan, but by this time manufacturing had been moved to Schenectady, New York, where land and labor were cheaper. We begin with a souvenir album featuring 24 sepia-toned photographs titled, With Edison at Schenectady, 1892. It still uses the Edison General Electric name as the merger that formed General Electric was taking place that year. Photographs show engineering and manufacturing, employees, Edison light bulbs, the power station, generators, boiler room, street railway cars, locomotives, etc. The opening photograph shows Edison surrounded by his lieutenants. One of them was John Kruesi, who was tasked with turning many of Edison's ideas into working models. He is closely associated with developing the phonograph. In 1892, he was named General Manager, in charge of the facilities in Schenectady. This copy is a presentation copy inscribed, “Compliments of John Kruesi.” The cover is padded textured calf with gilt lettering. Item 77. Priced at $4,500.
Did a tractor or a threshing machine ever compete in the Indianapolis 500? No, of course not. However, The Chase Threshing Machine Co. made automobiles from 1911-1927. They withdrew from the market after that, focusing entirely on farm equipment. Case entered three cars, including the number 1 car in the pole position, in the inaugural race in 1911. They didn't fare too well, their highest finisher coming in #28. They all had steering problems. One crashed. They entered again in 1912 and 1913, having their best finish in 1913 when a Case finished eighth. It was the only time a Case finished the race. Rather than trying to continue the momentum, they focused entirely on passenger cars after that. This is a rare dealer catalogue for the Case Model X Motor Cars. This was for the 1912 model year. Case purchased the Pierce Motor Co. in 1910 and began selling their Pierce-Racine cars. That gave them a network of 8,000 dealers and agents worldwide. In 1911, they put their own name on their cars, offering a line of automobiles. They targeted the women drivers market, but never really caught on that well. Their peak production came in 1915 with 2,630 cars. In their 17 years, they produced 30,000 automobiles. In 1923 alone, Ford sold over 2 million Model Ts. After exiting the automobile business, Case operated independently under the Case name for many years. Its agricultural equipment is still sold today, though they now operate under the name of CNH Industrial, a Dutch company that took them over as a result of a merger in 1999. Item 11. $275.
Next we go back to the early days of television. It was first developed in the 1920s and there was some broadcasting in the 30s. Progress came to a halt during the war years but by 1944, things picked up rapidly. This is a sales album from Charles M. Storm Co. in 1944. They produced programs for television stations, mainly stations of the NBC and DuMont networks in New York. Advertisers would pay to produce the programs that would then be used by the television stations, somewhat like syndication. Those who paid for the production got to advertise on it. Advertisers included Alfred Dunhill of London, Casual Clothes, Click Magazine, Harvey's Ports & Sherries, Official Detective Magazine, Real Story Magazine, Tintex Tints & Dyes, Mechanix Illustrated, and Esquire. Magazines were a major advertiser. Those involved in the war effort were also major advertisers. Along with the Red Cross there was U.S. Army Ordnance, U.S. Army Chemical warfare, WAC (recruiting), and an odd one, Fat Salvage Campaign. Homemakers were urged to collect cooking grease to contribute for use in making explosives, soap, and medicine. The programs included Man of Magic, Gay Nineties, Television Follies of 1944, and Confetti Murder Case, sponsored by Official Detective Magazine. Mechanix Illustrated sponsored the futuristic Your World Tomorrow. Obvious advertiser tie-ins were Tintex Minstrels, Real Story and Here's Click. Perhaps the most ambitious production was “Television's First Musical Comedy Written and Produced for Television,” The Boys from Boise. The plot involved some showgirls stuck on a ranch near Boise with some unsavory men. It aired on DuMont on September 28, 1944. At the time, there were only six regularly operating television stations in America, half of them in New York, with one each in Philadelphia, Chicago and Schenectady. Schenectady got in there with these major cities as its station, WRGB, was the first. Not surprisingly, it was operated by the aforementioned General Electric. There are no surviving films of these shows and very few stills even. Item 86. $7,500.
This is a very rare but important book pertaining to slavery. The title is The Under-ground Railroad by Rev. W. M. Mitchell. This is a first edition, first printing of the first book solely devoted to the Underground Railroad. It was published in 1860. It was published only in England as the Fugitive Slave Act subjected those who assisted escaped slaves to a $1,000 fine and six months imprisonment. It would have put him at risk if published in America. Mitchell was an orphaned, free black man in North Carolina. He was forced into an apprenticeship, which was not all that different from slavery, on a North Carolina plantation. He witnessed slavery first-hand and became determined to assist those who attempted to escape. He moved to Ohio where his home became a station on the Underground Railroad. He estimated 60,000 slaves escaped this way to Canada. He assisted 1,300 of them. During the Civil War, he toured Britain advocating opposition to slavery and boycotting Southern cotton. He moved to Toronto where he became a minister and ministered to a congregation that included a large number of former runaway slaves. Item 1. $25,000.
Commonplace books were popular in the 19th century. They were collections of things that were important to their owners, or intended to be gifts, generally by young women and girls. This one was an herbarium. It contains images of Victorian women, singing birds, birthday cards, depictions of flowers, floral arrangements, and butterflies. What makes this one special is it contains numerous dried ferns and seaweed. Whoever created this, and we don't know who, did an excellent job of arranging her specimens artistically. She had a sense for beauty. This may have been created in New England and circa 1885, though this is not clear either. Item 61. $950.
Zephyr Used & Rare Books may be reached at 360-695-7767 or zephyrbook@gmail.com.
