Postby dognose » Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:51 am
A representative of Unger Brothers, Newark, N. J., who are classed among the best and most extensive manufacturers of jewelry, was one of the callers at the office of The American Stationer upon a recent occasion, and in the course of conversation said: " Unger Brothers are not stationers but jewelers—out and out jewelers—and noting that the stationery people carry many of the articles handled by jewelers we thought we would make a bid for the business. We think that there is a big field here if properly worked, and that it is worth trying for. We propose to make the experiment, as will be seen by our advertisement in The Stationer. Our main reason in trying to reach some of the stationers was because we thought that they could use some of our goods—small silver novelties, such as calendars, memorandum books, paper cutters and letter clips. We feel that there are lots of goods handled by the jewelers which the stationery trade can sell and we want to get acquainted with them along that line. This we ought to be able to do with our goods and prices. Let me call attention to a few for illustration. One which we want to make mention of, and which is very appropriate to the stationery trade, is a little pen puller, the price of which is only 35 cents. You open it, place the pen in the grip, and then pull with the lower handle, which is so arranged that it is operated with one finger, and the harder you pull the harder the pen is gripped, and the pen is easily extracted. We also sell a sterling silver calendar for $1.35. This is arranged with cards of the month, day of the week and day of the month, and is what is known as a perpetual calendar. The design is in pierced openwork. We also show a combined pen rack, calendar, thermometer and stamp holder, which sells for $3.85. A penholder of similar design is made to go with this combination, which costs 70 cents extra. This article is also sterling silver, and is beautifully chased. The thermometer is in the centre and the calendar and stamp compartments are at either end; the place for the pen is on a rack below these. In addition to our line of sterling silver novelties we also make a full line of leather goods, seal, lizard, alligator, iguana, &c. These are all handsomely mounted in sterling silver of new designs, and usually with a smooth space for engraving initials. This line comprises portemonnaies, card cases, &c. Besides these we manufacture many other goods available to fine stationers. These are erasers, playing card cases, pencil tips, seals, thermometers, court plaster cases, leather blotters, roller blotters, picture frames, book marks, daily memorandum pads, check cutters, stamp boxes, bag tags, mucilage bottles—in fact everything which appertains to ladies' writing desks or which is to be used on library tables and other similar places. The prices are as reasonable also as those already quoted for other articles. Now, we want to educate the stationery trade up to the point of using these goods and to the fact that they can buy a line of such articles from the jewelers. There is a wrong impression among stationers that the prices of sterling silver goods are high, but we want to say that there is little difference between the prices of the plated article and the article of genuine sterling silver. In short, we take the articles which are carried by many stationers and improve and beautify them. We mount them in a sterling finish, make them available for the finest stationery trade, and at a cost only slightly advanced over the plated article. We are sure that when stationers are made to realize this fact they will carry a line of these goods. The factory of Unger Brothers is in Newark, but we have a full line of samples at our New York office, 192 Broadway."
Source: The American Stationer - 6th December 1894
Trev.