November 18, 2020 Extraordinary, Sporting & Collector Firearms
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/18/2020
Counter Felt, "UMC SHOT SHELLS ARE STEEL LINED" approximately 11-1/4" x 13-1/2" felt (wool) mat. Here is a counter felt made for advertising cartridges by the Union Metallic Cartridge Co. These felts would be in gun shops, country stores and the likes, on the glass countertops where... when customers were looking at guns or other items to purchase the felts would serve a dual purpose. 1) Most important to UMC, it was advertising of their products. 2) To protect the glass countertops from being scratched. The canvasback is one of the rarest images to find on these felts. This cataloger knows of five or less that exist. To find the wool felts in this condition is difficult at best, most likely when used, these were thrown away. UMC was purchased by Remington in 1912, however, operations had been underway for many years prior to the combination of the two companies, maybe as early as 1902. Therefore this felt is most likely pre-1912 and could be much older, possibly pre turn of the century. "The Reproduction Company" (cartouche on back of felt) was a company that produced these felts around the turn of the century for advertising. A good early turn of the century (1900) mark. You can Google "Reproduction Company 29 W 34th St New York" and a book from Cornell University Library System (The Magazine of Business) from 1909 has an ad from the "Reproduction Company (1909) stating how to advance your sales by using their felt mats and reproducing "Your Company's Images on Mats in Full Color". They state "Don't hang on to old unprofitable methods of keeping your goods before the public. Reproduce your advertisement on one of our felt mats." This fantastic colorful art in a rare gun/ammunition advertisement from turn of the century, example of early rare UMC advertising.
Item Dimensions: 11 - 1/4" x 13 - 1/2".