A Box of Powder from the "Other" Tetlow

On February 2, 2011 I posted scans of items from the Henry Tetlow firm, one of which was a package of face powder with a battleship revenue attached. The next day John followed up with a check from Daniel Tetlow, Henry's brother who had left the family firm and established his own, the Tetlow Manufacturing Company. Apparently, for some forty years there were two Tetlow firms manufacturing beauty products in Philadelphia.

This is a package of face powder manufactured by the "other" Tetlow, Daniel. It has a 1/4 cent battleship revenue on it (cancel only readable for date,) as did the package I showed in my original post. Apparently the brothers' products were similarly priced. One wonders how the consumer chose between them?

Johnson & Johnson Battleship on Carbolated Cotton

A nice, clear Johnson & Johnson cancel has already been shown on the Blog. This one is barely readable, and its only claim to fame is that it is still on the box of Carbolated Cotton where it was placed more than a hundred years ago.

The stamp.

The box.

Carbolated cotton is created by soaking absorbent cotton in a solution of carbolic acid, alcohol and glycerin, and allowing it to dry. The glycerin will bond the carbolic acid to the cotton fiber. It was most probably used to alleviate the pain of toothache due to an untreated cavity.

Johnson & Johnson was formed in 1886 when Robert Johnson walked away from the firm of Seabury & Johnson and went into business with his brother Edward. Today it is a Fortune 500 company with some 250 subsidiaries in 57 countries. We use it when we buy the original Band-Aid brand, Tylenol, or Neutrogena products.

A Battleship Revenue on a Package of Face Powder

The Henry Tetlow Company was "founded" in Philadelphia in 1849 to manufacture and market toiletries. One source (see link at end of article) says that Henry was eleven years old at the time, and that he did not emigrate from England until 1851, but the company existed in some form then, and he began to run it while in his twenties. By 1866 the firm started using zinc oxide in their face powders in place of powdered lead, but did not choose to patent the idea.

The firm introduced Gossamer face powder circa 1888, and was still marketing it into the Spanish-American War tax period.

The battleship revenue on this face powder package was not applied by Tetlow. The initials are A.E.T. and the location is Portland, Maine. The stamp was probably applied by the local distributor.

A Tetlow trade card, probably from the late 1800's.

The Tetlow firm lost most of its competitive advantage during the early part of the twentieth century, disappearing from view around 1940. The revenue on the bottom of this package of Swan Down rouge was issued in 1919 and would have been used until November 23, 1921.

And while we are showing revenue stamps having nothing to do with the 1898-1902 period, here is a copy of the private die proprietary stamp that the company used from 1881 to mid-1883.

For more information on Tetlow, see www.collectingvintagecompacts.blogspot.com/

Hyphen Hole 14 on RB21

Yesterday's post of two examples of the HH14 variety is today complemented by an example on the 1/4c proprietary presently for auction on Ebay.  The item on Ebay is most remarkable in that it appears to be a complete sheet of RB21p, the 1/4c proprietary stamp.  I believe this is the same sheet that has been for auction over the past several months, initially at very high starting bids.  The price has since come down.  You can find the Ebay lot here.  Battleship sheets are rare.  Their size alone made them difficult to preserve, and this is a rare surviving example, even if it is somewhat battered.

RB21p 1/4 cent proprietary full sheet of 200

current Ebay lot

So while the sheet is remarkable just because it exists, it contains an HH14 example, or the hyphen hole perforation variety in which the perforations appear as 14 perfs per 2 centimeters rather than 7.  The cause of this variety is explained in this post.  Thanks to JW Palmer for his elegant explanation of this anomaly. 

In the Ebay listing is included this closeup scan:

The bottom rows of stamps clearly show the HH14 variety.  Below is an even closer view:

Thanks to Dave T for spotting the HH14s in the sheet!

A Philatelic Hat Trick!

Yu=Kan Headache Cure - Three Dose Packet

Yu=Kan Chemical Company

Baltimore, Maryland

Reverse side showing usage of three types of stamps
Mailed May 9, 1901 from Baltimore MD to Pittsburg(h) PA

Continuing our weekend "Baltimore" theme in recognition of the ARA meeting at BALPEX, here's an unusual item featuring simultaneous, legitimate usage of three different types of stamps. Postage, revenue and postage due stamps all combine to make a philatelic "hat trick" on this tiny 1901 envelope containing a proprietary headache curative manufactured by the Yu=Kan Chemical Company of Baltimore, Maryland.

The drug industry in the United States was largely unregulated until passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. Competition was fierce and product curative claims often were outrageous, with some products simply containing alcohol or a narcotic as the primary active ingredient. The constant onslaught of pharmaceutical advertisements we endure in today's media actually pales in comparison to the volume of print advertising that appeared, even in philatelic magazines, during this heyday for patent medicines. And those ads did not contain the obligatory usage cautions and soft-spoken side-effect descriptions required of today's ads.

Gimmicks, giveaways, celebrity endorsements were all the rage. Many of today's popular marketing strategies, including mailings of product samples, trace their origin to the colorful history of how patent medicines were hawked.

This Yu=Kan Chemical piece probably resulted from a product fulfillment mailing sent to respondents replying to an offering of a free or low-cost product sample. Presumably most respondents resided in Baltimore, where Yu=Kan was located and where this item was mailed using a 1-cent stamp, the correct rate for a local delivery drop letter. Regardless of whether the item was offered as a free sample, or actually was sold for ten cents, the stated price, the applicable revenue tax was required and was paid by the manufacturer with a precanceled 1/4-cent RB21 battleship proprietary issue. Because the addressee resided in Pittsburg(h), not Baltimore,the local drop rate was not applicable and thus when the underpaid cover arrived there, a typical Pittsburgh precanceled postage due stamp was added, completing this uncommon philatelic "hat trick".

Can anyone provide any historical information about the Yu=Kan Chemical Company: when was it founded; how long was it in business; did it become part of another company? Other than seeing several other proprietary stamps bearing the firm's cancellation, I've been unable to find information about the firm.

Power of Attorney

Power of Attorney Josiah Focht to Mrs. Sarah E. O'Brien

Reading, PA December 9, 1898

closeup view of correction of the improper use

of four 1/4-cent proprietary stamps with a 1-cent R154

provisional I.R. overprint cancelled in a different hand

A power of attorney, whether for a specific transaction like a stock sale, or universal, as is the one pictured above, was taxed 25 cents according to the War Revenue Law.

This one is particularly interesting because of the number and variety of stamps used on it. Usually one finds a single R169, 25-cent battleship stamp affixed. Here, eleven 2-cent provisional R155 I.R. overprint issues, and one regular R164 2-cent battleship along with four 1/4-cent RB21 proprietary issues paid the 25 cent tax.

One can almost see the parties scrounging among themselves for the stamps. They came up with 25 cents, but the use of the four 1/4-cent proprietary was improper. The War Revenue Law specifically required that only documentary stamps be used to pay documentary taxes and only proprietary stamps be used for proprietary taxes. Clearly the Treasury Department wanted to track the specific amount of revenue generated by each of those two tax categories.

A single 1-cent R154 I.R. provisional overprint stamp was subsequently added over the strip of proprietary issues to correct the error. It too is dated 12/9/1898, but the handwriting is different. So a total of 26 cents ultimately was affixed to this document. Use of proprietary issues on a document is uncommon, and a correction even more so. Generally their use either went unnoticed or was tolerated.

Tracking 1898 Values: 1/4 Cent Proprietary Battleship

The lowly quarter cent proprietary, common and cheap.  Unused copies sell for no more than a dealer would charge to recover his costs and maybe, just maybe, make a cent or two of profit.  If you are accustomed to collecting postage stamps of the 1898 era and you stumble across the valuations of the common battleships, you are likely to be shocked, as even the most common postage stamps of the era sell for far more than just a few pennies.  But supply and demand works in favor for the collector of battleship revenues.  Lots of stamps, and fewer collectors than for their postage cousins.  So while the plate blocks shown below do command a decent premium, there are plenty of stamps available to the revenue collector among these issues.

And for the quarter cent value of the proprietary series, there is lots to collect.  As you can see from the stamps below, the range of browns on this stamp varies dramatically.  The Scott catalog lists 5 different browns for this stamp: brown, red brown, yellow brown, orange brown, and bister.  In a future post I will try to match these color names to examples.  See if you can find these different varieties among the stamps below.

As with all the proprietary battleships, prices for the used versions of these stamps can vary dramatically based on the cancel applied to the stamp.  Printed, typed, and handstamped cancels from certain firms can command substantial premiums over the common versions of this stamp.  Examples of some of these more valuable cancels will be illustrated in a post in the next couple of days.

RB21 1/4 cent roulette proprietary single unused

2010 Scott Value: 20 cents

RB21p 1/4 cent hyphen hole proprietary single unused

2010 Scott Value:   20 cents

RB21p 1/4 cent roulette block of 4

2010 Scott Value: 50 cents

RB21p 1/4 cent hyphen hole block of 4

2010 Scott Value: 55 cents

RB21 1/4 cent roulette top plate block of six

2010 Scott Value: $110.00

RB21p 1/4 cent hyphen hole left imprint plate block of 6

2010 Scott Value: $125.00

RB21 1/4 cent imprint and value block of 9

Scott Value: None