American Sanitary Drug Company: The Tolman Collection

This post is part of a continuing series documenting the Henry Tolman collection of 1898 proprietary printed cancels. 

Or is it American Syndicate Drug Company?  A search using contemporary technology doesn't turn up much, if anything, for the firm American Sanitary Drug.  It may be that the firm never existed.  Henry Tolman, in his collection, suggested on his page for these cancels that the firm's actual name was or might have been American Syndicate Drug Company.  But his suggestion creates a very different problem than searching and finding nothing.  Combining the words drug and syndicate and doing a general search produces zillions of results, mostly having to do with narco-trafficantes.

Joyce lists one type for this cancel on three values, so Mr. Tolman's collection of this company appears complete.  But given that the actual name of the firm is uncertain, I'm also not sure if we really know how many types this firm might have actually issued.  Whatever the case, additional information is needed to confirm the name of this company.  

A check of the BDR2 shows the 2 1/2c stamp attributed to American Sanitary Drug, and a few handstamps with the same initials without attribution.  There is a line with a small advert and no stamp for the "Aldo Summer Drug Co."  It appears there remains sleuthing to be done here!

More C. H. Arnold & Company: Look to the Expanding BDR2

 

Frank Sente reminded me a couple of days ago to always check the relatively new, and constantly improving, BDR2 to see what cancels have emerged since Joyce's addendum to the Chappell list of 1898 proprietary printed cancels.  Thanks to Bob Mustacich and a dedicated team (including many contributors over the years to this site), BDR2 has become a much more useful and interesting reference tool for proprietary printed and handstamp collectors.  And because the team is thorough, they have identified, listed, and provided images and branding materials for the companies in the Joyce/Chappell list and then some.  And in today's case, the then some includes C. H. Arnold, which featured here a few days ago as a component of Henry Tolman's collection.  

Frank Sente sent me the examples of the stamps above, which add to the single cancel listed in the legacy list.  At the BDR2 site, if you search for CH Arnold, you'll find images of Arnold handstamps in addition to the printed cancels.

C. H. Arnold & Company: The Henry Tolman Collection

This post is part of a continuing series documenting the Henry Tolman collection of 1898 proprietary printed cancels. 

C. H. Arnold & Co.

NEW YORK.

1901

Joyce lists only one type on one stamp denomination with only one year date for this company.  So this stamp appears to be all there is for C. H. Arnold.  C. H. Arnold & Company was in the wine business, and is reported to have sold at auction major stocks of Madeira in 1900.  

Malcolm Goldstein, would this be a good subject for exploration?  The Madeira story among southern planters in the US is told in this academic piece, where C. H. Arnold is mentioned:  

American Nineteenth Century History, Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 173–188

Liquid Assets: Madeira Wine and Cultural Capital among Lowcountry Planters, 1735-1900

James H. Tuten

Abraham & Straus (not Allen & Sharp): The Henry Tolman Collection

This post is part of a continuing series documenting the Henry Tolman collection of 1898 proprietary printed cancels. 

The "A&S" printed cancels in the Joyce/Chapell list are credited to the firm Allen & Sharp Co.  Henry Tolman was unsure that the A&S stood for Allen & Sharp, and handwrote a note on his album page that the firm might be "Abraham & Straus".  With the help of Google and Wikipedia, it was easy to establish that Mr. Tolman was correct, especially because he included a Joyce unlisted variety with a "MACY" handstamp.  

A short history of A&S tells us this:  Abraham & Straus, commonly shortened to A&S, was a major New York City department store.  The store was founded in 1865 in Brooklyn, New York, as Wechsler & Abraham by Joseph Wechsler and Abraham Abraham. In 1893, the Straus family (including Isidor Straus and Nathan Straus), who acquired a general partnership with Macy's department stores in 1888, bought out Joseph Wechsler's interest in Wechsler & Abraham and changed the store's name to Abraham & Straus. 

We know that Abraham & Straus department store was affiliated with Macy's.  Our Rosetta Stone is the bottom and unlisted stamp that Tolman included in his collection.

Collectors of proprietary printed cancels that use the Joyce list as their primary reference should change the identity of the A&S cancels from Allen & Sharp to Abraham & Straus.

"MACY" handstamp over A. & S. 1900 printed cancel

Allen-Pfeiffer Chemical Company: The Henry Tolman Collection

As I wrote about on this site years ago, I have the main body of Henry Tolman's (ARA member #4) 1898 proprietary printed cancel collection.  The auctioneers of his collection pulled some of the more valuable companies for separate sale, notably the J. Elwood Lee cancels.  However, Tolman's binders remain rich with interesting material.  I have made several attempts at starting to show, review, or update this material on this website, but I've usually given up in the interest of returning to documentary stamps, which are just more compelling to me.  

I've come to realize that I am not likely to ever methodically collect or study these cancels the way Chappelle, Joyce, or Tolman did.  But in reviewing Tolman's material, it seems useful to simply share scans of some, if not all, of the companies.  Individual stamps cancelled by many of the companies in Tolman's collection come up for sale on Ebay; on occasion, more advanced collections show up at Stamp Auction Network.  But nowhere are there good reference materials that actually show the significant depth and breadth of the proprietary printed cancels.  

This post marks the beginning of an effort to simply display much of Tolman's material, perhaps with a few editorial remarks and additions.  Allen-Pfeiffer Chemical Company kicks off the process.  Just what Allen-Pfeiffer made more broadly is uncertain to me.  BDR2 lists them as manufacturing chemists with a perfume business, while another online resource suggests they made rat poison.  Perhaps the same chemical had a dual use?

Joyce-Chappelle lists 3 printed cancel types for this firm; Tolman shows an additional type 4.  The handwriting on each page is that of Henry Tolman.

Fakes, Frauds and Facsimiles: The 3rd Big 4 Cancel by The J. W. Stowell Printing Company's Philatelic Advertising Bureau

 

A VERY LITTLE

REVENUE

SATISFIES US.

Nearly 13 years ago the subject of 1/8 cent proprietaries with Big 4 cancels was first addressed.  The old post is appended to the end of today's posting for reference.  Over the intervening years, a few new stamps have shown up that would have been good to have added to that early discussion. 

The first item is the stamp above.  Well explained in the older post below, the J. W. Stowell Printing Company produced an advertising stunt to promote their 4 philatelic publications.  Part of the stunt included overprinting copies of RB20 with three different types of overprints.  For years I've only known of the two that both read Big 4.  The third reported overprint was unknown to me.  That missing overprint appears to be the one above.  Again, as in the original post on this subject from January, 2010, I'm interested in the original sales material that J. W. Stowell produced that had these stamps attached.  Those items would help finish off this subject.

Meanwhile, some Big 4 railroad cancels have also shown up, which are offered below:

Original Big 4 post from January 10, 2010:

A couple days ago on January 8 I posted the image of a 1/8 cent proprietary stamp cancelled "BIG 4".  Today I will go a bit more in depth regarding this peculiar cancel.  It has often caused confusion with philatelists due to its non-standard origin.  In a 1975 edition of the American Revenuer there was speculation about whether this cancel had been applied by a midwest railroad known as the Big 4.  This cancel has never had anything to do with that railroad, despite any similarities, and I will illustrate a cancel of the railroad later in this post. 

I have two types of BIG 4 cancels in my collection, the one immediately below in two lines and a one line version that is also illustrated.  The cancel was created as an advertising stunt by the J.W. Stowell Printing Company, which produced four philatelic publications.  To advertise those four, which included the magazines The Perforater, The Herald Exchange, The Philatelic Bulletin, and The New York Philatelist, Stowell created a promotional card that it sent to stamp dealers that purchased philatelic advertisements.  The stamp was attached to the card, and the cancel and the card were printed at the same time. 

From what I can figure, the J.W. Stowell Printing Company is no more, or at least not with that name and not in Federalsburg, Maryland, where it was based. 

BIG

4
Two-line version of the BIG 4 cancel

A copy of this stamp and cancel is currently for sale at Eric Jackson's Ebay store.  The image below shows how Stowell used this type of cancel in a mock postal format.  The image comes from the February 1976 American Revenuer. 

The poor image quality of the image above comes from the American Revenuer as printed in the journal.  I am very interested in securing the real Stowell items.

BIG 4

A single line example of the BIG 4 cancel above, and an image of an example of its use in the 1899 J.W. Stowell advertisment below.  Note the BIG 4 publications are listed in the advert.

There was an old journal known as Midwest Precancel News that specialized primarily in postage stamp precancels but on occasion featured revenue stamps.  Printed cancels on the battleships were in many ways precancels.  The article below was part of a short survey of several of the major companies that used battleship printed cancels, including the Antikamnia Company and the Emerson Drug Company.

Midwest Precancel News, August 1936

Volume 3, Number 12, p. 47

Franklin Smith in this 1936 edition of the periodical Midwest Precancel News wrote about the Big 4 cancel.  Smith notes at the end of this short piece that there are 3 versions of the BIG 4 cancel.  I have only seen 2, and they are the examples from my collection illustrated above.  Despite Mr. Smith's article, by 1975 there was speculation about the exact origin of this cancel in the American Revenuer.  The AR put it straight though by February 1976 when it published a short article by Michael Gromet with an illustration of the advertising card by J. W. Stowell.  According to that article the two line version of the cancel was found on a mock postal cancellation made by Stowell while the single line cancel was found on the card.  Gromet illustrated the article with the images of use included above.

The distractor that has thrown some philatelists off regarding the origin of this cancel was the Big Four railroad - also known as the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. 

Hand illustrated cancel of the Big Four Railroad from the April 1974

edition of the American Revenuer, page 106

Henry Tolman and Steve Leavitt began a project in 1974 in the American Revenuer to illustrate railroad cancels on the 1898s.  Serialized alphabetically, the cancels were illustrated and reprinted in the American Revenuer.  Unfortunately the effort ended after two editions of the periodical and never got past the "Cs", but they did illustrate a Big Four Railroad cancel.  I do not yet have a stamp with any type of Big Four cancel in my collection, so I've cribbed the Tolman/Leavitt illustration and pasted it above.  Amusingly, in the key in the American Revenuer for this cancel, a typo indicated that this was a cancel for the "Big Sour" Railroad. 

Documentary Printed Cancels: Is the C.E.C. Found on Half Cent Gray Documentaries a Charles E. Cornell Printed Cancel?

Yesterday I posted stamps canceled by Dr. Fahrney & Son, a proprietary medicine company based in Maryland.  Dr. Fahrney used printed cancels on the 5/8c proprietary and 1/2c documentaries.  Today is presented Charles E. Cornell, who used printed cancels on the 5/8c proprietary, and, if the initials are any indication, on the 1/2c documentary as well.  Additional confirmation is needed for the 1/2c documentaries, as all we have is a match with the initials, C.E.C., though not the type font.  Courtesy of Frank Sente, we have multiple examples of the 1/2c documentary.

Based in New York, Charles E. Cornell made a variety of soaps and skin products.  

C.  E.  C.

August,   1899

Langlois scan, ex-Tolman

Below are three examples of 1/2c documentaries with August 6 1900 dates and C. E. C. printed cancels.  Are these by Charles E. Cornell?:

C.  E.  C.

Aug.  6th  1900

Langlois scan

C.  E.  C.

Aug.  6th  1900

Sente scan

C.  E.  C.

Aug  6th  1900

Sente scan

Sometime ago, Frank Sente sent the stamp above with an off-center C.E.C. cancel that includes perpendicular to the stamp printed letters at the upper right.  He offered the following comments in an email:  

"I have a gray 1/2 cent documentary with what I believe is a printed cancel that also bears some extraneous printing on it. I always figured it had been placed on the document BEFORE it was printed and picked up some of the printing either because it wasn't properly placed on the document to begin with, or the printing went a bit askew.  Look at the upper right corner of the right of the R162, 1/2 cent just above. See the extraneous lettering? Another stamp with presumably printed C. E. C.cancel is provided for comparison. Puzzling n'est-ce pas??

Documentary Printed Cancels: Dr. Fahrney & Son

Dr Fahrney's shop window display

Library of Congress 

Dr. Fahrney, like Mrs. Winslow, liked to make medicine from morphine.  One of the pusher's, excuse me, Doctor's, favorite active ingredients was morphine.  And the company put it in products like Dr. Fahrney's teething syrup.  Nothing like a 2 year old junkie.  The 1898 tax period became a peak period for these companies, just before the crash induced by the progressive era and pure food and drug laws.

We are now left with the remnants of these companies.  Bottle collectors that contained these nostrums stay busy with Dr. Fahrney & Son's material.  And revenue collectors the same.  In the case we have today, Frank Sente and Ron Lesher sent in scans of Dr. Fahrney cancels.  The 5/8 cent stamp immediately below would be expected: a proprietary stamp that was used on a proprietary medicine bottle.  But below the proprietary stamp is Ron Lesher's find of a 1/2 cent documentary stamp with a similar Dr. Fahrney cancel.

Dr. Fahrney & Son

2 23 1899.

Hagerstown,  Md.

Sente scan

Dr. Fahrney & Son

8  9  1900

Hagerstown,  Md.

Lesher scan

Why did Dr. Fahrney produce printed cancels on 1/2c documentaries?  One theory is that they might have been used on combination with 1/8c proprietary stamps to produce a 5/8 cent total.  Whatever the case, we now have another documentary printed cancel, and one that joins the series that includes stamps canceled by proprietary medicine companies.  

In the coming day, there will be a post on Charles E. Cornell, who also used printed cancels on 5/8 cent stamps, and appears to have done the same on 1/2 cent documentaries.

Thanks to Frank and Ron for sending these scans several years ago.  I finally pulled them out of the warehouse after matching the C.E.C. proprietary and documentary cancels for Charles Cornell, and I figure we might have a pattern of some kind.

E. S. Wells: Another Documentary Printed Cancel

The pursuit of documentary printed cancels continues.  Today is presented a new cancel to me from the proprietary medicine firm E. S. Wells.  The term medicine here is used somewhat loosely, as the firm was well known for making a rat poison it called "Rough on Rats".

The firm used printed cancels on proprietary stamps, and used what appears to be the same canceling plate on 2 cent documentary stamps, likely for their use on checks.  Blocks that include the manuscript-style red printed cancel are illustrated here on the 5/8c proprietary and the 2c documentary.  In both cases it appears the 1898 plate was used.  But for the 2c, part of the second 8 has been removed so that the number more closely resembles a 9.  If anybody has an example of an E. S. Wells 2c documentary on a check, please write or send a scan of the check to 1898revenues@gmail.com.  We'll post the scan here.

1898

E. S. Wells

JUL  11

1899

E. S. Wells

The last 8 in 1898 has had the lower left portion of the number planed off to resemble a 9

Sheet music cover the E. S. Wells smash hit, Rough on Rats

From Matt Reynolds, in a comment at the East Carolina Digital Collection website:

"The Wells Company, based in Jersey City New Jersey, offered a wide range of products including Rough on Corns, Rough on Itch, Rough on Toothache, and Wells’ Health Renewer. Wells promoted all of the company products far and wide in both newspapers and via advertising cards. He even produced a Rough on Rats song touting the effectiveness of the poison, which included the chorus: “R-r-rats! Rats! Rats! Rough on Rats, Hang your dogs and drown your cats: We give a plan for every man to clear his house with Rough on Rats” Sadly, some purchasers of the product chose to misuse it both to take their own lives and to take the lives of others. The most notorious case of the latter was the poisoning of Ada Appelgate by her husband Everett Appelgate and his mistress Frances Creighton. Both were convicted of murder in 1936 and were sent to the electric chair at New York’s Sing-Sing prison shortly after.

Imperial Soap Company

Where is Imperial Soap Company? 

As the out of copyright material of libraries and other collections is rapidly digitized by Google, Microsoft and others, there are few individuals or companies of note from the 1898 tax period for which some sort of information or history cannot be found.  This web site emerged in early 2009 as digitization was gathering steam, and we've managed to take advantage of the ever increasing amounts of late 19th and early 20th century data to conduct cancel research.

Chappell/Joyce and other have identified the stamp with the rosette cancels below as that of the Imperial Soap Company of Boston.  The company's cancels, especially the one below, are hard to miss, and Imperial, by virtue of the types of cancels they were alleged to have used on their stamps, must have been a firm with some size.  Yet despite the trove of information available on the web, I can find nothing about the Imperial Soap Company of Boston.  Where in history did this company go? 

Most of the hits returned by Google for Imperial Soap Company today refer to firms having nothing to do with the 1898 Boston version of the firm, or refer to examples of the stamps you see above and below on various philatelic web sites.  So, if anybody knows anything about this firm, I would appreciate an email from you at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Another issue has to do with the printed "cancels".  The cancels labeled type 2 & 3 below do not comply in any way with the rule regarding firm ID and date in the cancel.  Type 1 has the information, but just what was the company up to with the rosettes and the waves printed on the examples below?

In the recently mailed out edition of The American Revenuer, Ron Lesher unveils a cancel misidentified by our ancestors in the hobby, including Henry Tolman and Morton Dean Joyce.  This site has made similar discoveries of previously errant identifications.  Is Tolman's page correct or are their identification issues with these very distinct cancels?

Below:  Henry Tolman's Imperial Soap Company collection, containing a straight line handstamp, three printed cancel types and an unlisted printed cancel.

Handstamp:

Imperial Soap Co., Boston.

MAR 13  1899

Printed cancel type 1:

7-5-98

I. S. C.

Printed cancel type 2:

2 red rosettes, unlisted by Chappell/Joyce

Printed cancel type 3: 

waves(?)

Unlisted printed cancel - is this an Imperial Soap Company cancel?  Tolman mounted this stamp on his Imperial page.

Cancel for July 30: Karl O. Cyrus

K. O. C.

7-30-98

Bridgeport, Ct.

Penciled notes by Henry Tolman

Listing can be found in extension section of the Chappell/Joyce list

The Bridgeport Telegram, Friday, April 8, 1955:

Born in Norrkoping, Sweden, Jan. 23, 1867, Mr. Cyrus came here in 1888 and first established a pharmacy at 415 Fairfield avenue. He moved to the Fairfield-Courtland corner in 1909 where he remained until his retirement.  He formerly resided at 32 Hazelwood avenue.

Described in the Pharmaceutical Journal some years ago, was "Cyrus' Pretty Fountain." It was of white marble with green marble trimming. During his term as treasurer of the Connecticut Pharmaceutical association, Mr. Cyrus was the winner of an American Druggist contest for the best set of advertisements for a retail drug store.

At the time Mr. Cyrus opened his pharmacy, Fairfield avenue was so dusty he suggested to the city that the asphalt "be wetted down every night when there are no teams or bicycles on it;" a father of night street sprinkling.

Mr. Cyrus had the first street lights in the city installed in front of his store at his own expense.

A member of the Masonic fraternity since 1889, he was in Corinthian lodge, 104, AF and AM; Jerusalem Council, 16, R and SM; Jerusalem chapter, 13, RAM; Hamilton Commandery, 5, KT; Lafayette Consistory, 32nd degree and Pyramid Temple, AAONMS. He also was a former member of the Algonquin club and a charter member of the Kiwanis club.

He was former president of the Bridgeport Drug company, and another time of the Bridgeport Electric company which was started by a Swedish inventor.

Chappell/Joyce vs Joyce/Buford: The American Medicine Company

Here is a second example contrasting the 1950s compiled list of proprietary printed cancels by Chappell/Joyce with the late 20th century version from the Joyce/Buford collections.  The American Medicine Company has two cancels listed by Joyce/Chappell:

Joyce/Chappell cancel list

AMERICAN

SEPT.  15  1899.

MEDICINE

The Joyce/Buford data has only one additional cancel added: an invert of the December 15 cancel.  However, the example above shows there is a stamp undocumented in the J/B list.  The stamp above has a period after the month; the September 15 date below has a note that its known copies have no period after the month. 

Joyce/Buford data:

American Medicine Company 

New York, NY  

Type P 1               CJ Type 1                

5/8c       SEPT. 15, 1898.  Black      R             No Pd after Month

                DEC. 15, 1898.    Black      R            

                DEC. 15, 1898.    Black      R             Invert

This is a much simpler contrast that the one for Abbott Alkaloidal.  But there are still issues to resolve.  There is no substitute for actually handling or seeing the stamps in person to try to resolve the difference between the list at the top of this post, the list at the bottom, and the one example that I have in my possession in between.  There is lots of work to do and lots to share.

Chappell/Joyce vs Joyce/Buford: Abbott Alkaloidal Company

This past Tuesday, I raised the difficulties posed in trying to update the Chappell/Joyce Printed Cancels list in view of new data presented in the Joyce/Buford data sets.  In this post I examine that difficulty with the first company listed in the Chappell/Joyce list:  Abbott Alkaloidal. 

Abbott Alkaloidal is the predecessor of Abbott Laboratories, an S&P 500 component, and a very large 21st century pharmaceutical firm.  But whatever its future success after the pure food and drug laws of the early 20th century, the mid-20th century Chappell/Joyce list of Abbott Alkaloidal's printed cancels was not so successful or complete.  To wit:

The Chappell/Joyce entry for Abbott Alkaloidal shows the existence of a single, 1c proprietary, cancelled on September 19, 1898.  To understand the problem, here are the the cancels documented to exist in the newer Joyce/Buford spreadsheets:

The above list comes from the Joyce/Buford spreadsheet files.  And it shows far more than one printed cancel produced by Abbott Alkaloidal.  Obviously, sometime after the 1950s, a whole bunch more Abbott Alkaloidal cancels came to light for the compiler of this second list.  The compiler labels the cancels as type P1, or printed type 1, as the same lists also include handstamp types labeled as H1, 2, 3...  In addition, the label CJ Type 1 refers to the Chappell Joyce type from the 1950s list.

I only have three examples of these cancels to display in this post:

 

 

It is clear to me that merely posting the C/J lists against the J/B is a useful activity.  Over time, more complete listings with color examples like those above can be made available.  But this is merely the first company to be reviewed this way.  I think I will revisit some of the companies already posted on this site, like Hobron or Anglo American Drug, and see what the J/B lists have in store. 

Those posts are coming soon.

Proprietary Printed Cancels

Its been quite awhile since this site has considered proprietary printed cancels.  For a period, going back over one year ago,  I began to survey the cancels in Henry Tolman's former collection against the Chappell/Joyce list of proprietary printed cancels.  But then came along a new data set, one that was generated from the former collection of Morton Dean Joyce.  That collection was purchased by Bill Buford.  It is now in the hands of yet another collector.  However, the data set, minus the "Ds", was overwhelming.  The amount of material, including new varieties, compared to the published Chappell/Joyce list, is massive. 

So I decided to withdraw for awhile.  Instead, I've focused on Richard Fullerton's short list of documentary printed cancels, a much easier task to master.  That pursuit has led to an article published in the American Revenuer, and many posts on this site.  Many collectors have shared information and scans, and their help is appreciated.

But it is time to wade back into the major sea of proprietary printed cancels.  This time around, though, I'm not targeting the update of a list of these cancels for any time soon.  This project, in order to feel like a hobby rather than a pain-the-arse, will have to be taken slowly, and with plenty of diversions and distractions to make it seem not so much like I am conducting an inventory exercise at a Walmart.  The stamps, even if I had all of them, don't have bar codes. 

The On Beyond Holcombe series has so far told the stories of proprietary medicine firms that used handstamp cancels, and has kept proprietary battleships alive on this site for the past few months.  During those months I've begun to look at the Joyce/Buford data, the +50 year old Chappell data, and the few stamps that I have access to from the Tolman collection.  And there is lots to write about, without preparing endless lists which would largely draw from the Joyce/Buford data.  Either way, though, there are lists to be prepared, but I'm only going to work on them as I find the pursuit interesting and fun.  Little by little, with the help of readers of this column, the lists can be modernized and explored, and made whole with color scans and stories of the firms that used the stamps and cancels. 

So stay tuned. 

Rare printed cancel; note in Tolman's hand

Updating the Joyce/Chappell Lists: The Fenaline Company

Fenaline is a firm that seems to have disappeared to history.  Online searches are extraordinarily productive with many companies from the 1898 era; The Fenaline Company draws not a single hit on Google.  Joyce and Chappell had no information to even state city or state of origin, and we remain in the dark here at this blog.  If you have any information on this company I would very much appreciate you help.

The J/C list is below.  This is a short list, with only three collectable cancels posted.  Below, however, are five scans from my collection of different collectable cancels, including a new type, which I have added to the new updated list/spreasheet for this firm.

Updated Fenaline Company List of Printed Cancels

Type 1

Sep. 30, 1899

Type 1

Feb. 10, 1900

unlisted by Joyce

Type 2

Sept. 25, 1900

Type 2

Feb. 20, 1901

Type 3

May 24, 1900

unlisted by Joyce

ex-Tolman page of The Fenaline Company printed cancels