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The Capewell Horse Nail Co. Rough Riders Prefer the “Capewell” The Best Horse Nail in the World.
New York, 1899. The Gray Litho. Co. Chromolithograph, 15.5” x 10.75”. Pabst Milwaukee beer ad on verso. CONDITION: Very good, light soiling and scratches, 2” and two .5” tears in margins, light chipping to margins. An appealing and apparently unrecorded Capewell Horse Nail Company advertising calendar featuring an illustration of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders charging into battle with their sabers drawn, a dashing figure seemingly representing Roosevelt himself prominent in the foreground. This topical advertisement was issued shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War—when the fame of Roosevelt’s iconic company of 1060 cavalrymen was still resonant—and attempts to capitalize on the patriotic fervor their exploits elicited. Appearing below the lively illustration are the locations of the company’s twelve branches in a range of major U.S. cities, a list of the company’s officers, and a calendar for the year 1899. Text below the calendar indicates that “a copy printed in colors, trimmed at top and bottom with metal rods, and finished with monthly calendar sheets” would be sent upon application to the company’s main office in Hartford. In 1881, the British-born inventor George Capewell (1843–1919) formed the Capewell Horse Nail Co. in Hartford, Connecticut, which mass produced horseshoe nails. “His patented automated machines made Capewell the only company in the world that could mass produce horseshoe nails in an era when horses powered transportation worldwide. For decades, the company grew and prospered based on this single high-demand product that no one else could match” (“History of Innovation”). The company moved from its Hartford location to the nearby town of Bloomfield, Connecticut, where it operated until its closure in 2012. The Gray Lithographing Co. was founded in the mid-1890s by Olin D. Gray (1854–1938). Born in Remsen, New York, Gray moved to St. Louis as a child and got his start managing the lithography firm of August Gast & Company. By 1887 the firm had reorganized and Gray had joined the New York office with Louis Wall, who relocated to Brooklyn to found his own firm about a decade later. Gray continued to operate the Gast Lithographing and Engraving Co. alongside his own firm, which he sold in 1910 to Sackett & Wilhelms Lithographing Co. He retired to Florida. No copies recorded in OCLC. REFERENCES: “History of Innovation” at Capewell online.
Item #9442
Price: $475.00
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