Type Cast

The odd and unique stuff that comes my way takes many forms.  In addition to my collecting goal of having one example from every set sport and non-sport set Topps put out from 1948-80 (and sometimes one of each subset), I also pursue pieces related to the company proper. A little while back I acquired two "sorts" used by Topps for printing their stationery.  One was clearly heavily used to produce letterhead for the company, the other turned out to be a red herring.  Here is the letterhead sort (a "sort" being the entire unit used to typeset something):

This sort was heavily used, as you can see and appears have a copper plate affixed to a lead slug which in turn is affixed to a wooden block.  Here is a mirrored look at it:

I'm reasonably certain this was used to produce letterhead after World War 2 as the italic "incorporated " was not used prior to the war (the font used back then was more like the main font for "Topps Chewing Gum").  I've got a prior look at some stationery here.

Here is a pre-war letterhead from late 1940, signed by Abram Shorin no less; you can see the fonts are similar atop the piece:

A year later Topps had unincorporated and took a DIY approach, this time for a Philip Shorin missive:

I'm not 100% certain but believe they unincorporated so they would not subject to as much scrutiny once the war started and sugar and other staples and goods needed for their business became regulated. Eventually they cleaned things up a bit once the old supply was exhausted:

After the war the italic "incorporated" appears once Topps changed their ownership structure around 1947.  I would wager my sort was used to produce this stationery.  Other elements would be added as needed; the reference in the form letter below to pre-testing of Tatoo dates this specimen to 1948-49:  

That's an interesting lead paragraph as it may explain why Tatoo has a different style wrapper in 1949 from when it was first released in mid 1948. Tatoo of course was the first Topps novelty item. I wonder if the text instructions were changed to semi-graphic after the testing (scale is off, the wrapper on the left is from the original issue and is the same width but a little shorter than the one on the right):

 

The famous Topps testing procedures were firmly in place from the beginning!

Just for fun, here is another form letter for the 1949 World Coins issue, better known as Play Coins of the World:

Sy Berger also got into the act:

Sometimes the color element was omitted, as this 1952 letter shows:

The "Topps Chewing Gum" was still using the same typeface for the company name in 1959 but "incorporated" changed somewhere along the way, which means my little slug had been retired:

I don't think they changed to company name typeface until they moved to Duryea in 1966 and went with the much better curved logo.  Here is a stylized version from 1980:

I mentioned the other piece I obtained had a twist.  Here it is, it is a heavy steel item, quite suitable for a paperweight, which is what I am using it as:

The kids, the "profits from pennies" all make it seem like it belongs to "our" Topps but after a little research I first thought it was for the old department store of the same name.  More research however, shows that a trademark was granted to a Topps brand of motor oil under a filing by Plymouth Wholesale Corporation in 1962. That trademark included the phrase "profits from pennies" so I guess this piece is unrelated.

Get It In Writing

Well it's official, the scanner here at the Topps Archives Research Center has officially given up the ghost. So it's back to plumbing the depth's of the ol' hard drive for the next week or so, until a new machine gets purchased and installed. It's not all for naught though as this will give me a chance to show some very vintage material that will segue nicely, one hopes, into an upcoming article I have in The Wrapper that delves into the Topps backstory (more on that as we get closer to publication kids).

Once again, here's some scans provided by Friend o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd, this time of some very early Topps Chewing Gum Stationery that shows just how little money was being dealt with right around the start of World War 2.



Yes, 38 cents for 1 box of 100 tabs of gum from Topps in 1940! It was all about volume of course but that type of figure was quite common at the time. That Abram Shorin signature by the way, looks secretarial to me and not of his hand.

Mr. Leighton, of Wiscasset, Maine did not not act quickly enough and just over a year later the price had gone up by a penny:



Like his brother's, that Philip Shorin scrawl was most likely penned by someone from the steno pool. Things were looking up though, as Topp's paid the freight on orders of 150 boxes or more. I am not sure why they were unincorporated at this time, after having been a true corporation just a year earlier. Fodder for another post!

The gum tabs were not something being marketed to kids just yet. The vending machine trade referred to in the correspondence was primarily focused on taverns and tobacconists as the primary selling point of Topps Gum in 1940 would have been to mask the offending odors of liquor and smoke on a gentleman's breath before he trundled on home to the missus. There were also very utilitarian point of sale displays being used. You can get a good idea of the type of display the gum was being sold out of by looking at the graphic on this Topps envelope:



There was another counter display that I'll get into another time that was much smaller, just a little tub, but the vending machines and open displays of the 1940's were meant for counter-tops primarily. These small vending machines are sometimes referred to as column vendors:



Now, I am not certain if the little gum tabs that had cards inserted were sold in tubs or just in column vendors and in columnar displays. It seems like the cards would fall out if they were just loose in a tub.

Here's the back of the envelope to close things out tonight-note the Christmas Seal: