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Shelton & Cheever, Manufacturers, of All Kinds of Engine Hose, Elastic Pipes, Suction Hose, Fire buckets, Fire Caps…

Boston: Shelton & Cheever, [ca. 1842]. Printed by J. C. Sharp. Illustrated lithographic broadside, 15.625” x 10.625”. CONDITION: Very good, a few stains to right margin, some horizontal and short diagonal folds.

A delightfully illustrated and apparently unrecorded broadside advertising firefighting supplies and other leather goods by the prominent mid-century Boston firm of Shelton & Cheever.

A spool of fire hose, alongside a nozzle, a helmet and bucket, and a section of “elastic pipe” are shown together with other leather goods manufactured by Shelton & Cheever, including trunks, riding whips, an array of horse tack (included a disembodied hand holding the reins of two horses), and even a handsome little rocking horse being ridden by a young child. Wares listed below the firm name include “all kinds of engine hose, elastic pipes, suction hose, fire buckets, fire caps, also every description of trunks, travelling bags, valises, riding saddles, whips & rocking horses.” The stated locations of the firm are 7 Washington and 58 Brattle Streets (“fourth door from Dock Square”).

Shelton & Cheever was founded by John Shelton (1805–1882) after he completed an apprenticeship in the saddlery and harness business, and in 1837 he formed a partnership with  Simon G. Cheever (1813–1876), his former apprentice. “The firm occupied stores, at various times, on Court, Brattle, and Washington streets, and in Cornhill. They did a large business, and the quality of their work was the best in the market,” encompassing saddlery, firefighting, and military equipment (Annals, pp. 341, 219). The City of Boston patronized the firm for fire hose, hosecap, helmet, and other repairs in the early 1860s. 

James Clement Sharp (1818–1897) was an active Boston lithographer in the early 1840s, beginning his career in a brief partnership with pioneering British-American color lithographer William Sharp from 1841 to 1842. He then worked under his own name at 16 and 24 Franklin Street before selling his stones to his brother William Comely Sharp (not to be confused with British-born William Sharp) and becoming a natural science teacher.

No holdings recorded in OCLC, nor do we locate any examples through google searches.

A rare and attractive broadside advertising an important Boston manufacturer of fire-fighting supplies and leather goods.

REFERENCES: Annals of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1795-1892 (Boston, 1892); Documents of the City of Boston, Volume 1 (Boston, 1862); Last, Jay. The Color Explosion :  Nineteenth-Century American Lithography (Santa Ana, CA: Hillcrest Press, 2005), pp. 143, 227; Pierce, Sally and Catharina Slautterback. Boston Lithography, 1825-1880 (Boston, 1991), 151; “Sharp’s, J. C., Lith. – Boston” at Fitz Henry Lane online.

Item #10383

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