[Trade Catalog] Product Binder for Colgate & Co., 199 Fulton St., New York City

New York: Colgate & Co, 1923. Full Leather (morocco) binder. Stab binding, with two brass screws. Very Good Minus. Huge binder of a wide range of cosmetic and personal hygiene products of Colgate & Co., the predecessor of today's Colgate Palmolive. The binder is quarto-sized, measuring 28.5 by 21cm, and it is 5.5 cm thick. Containing 264 single sheet product flyers, or plates, 48 of which are in full color. The plates are printed on the rectos only, and the color plates are on a thicker paper stock, with a slight glossiness. Virtually all the plates a single product, with one to three photos, and most often, two photos, typically of the product itself -- the jar, bottle, can, tube or whatever it comes in, and then a second shot showing the outer packaging. There are a few plates showing display fixtures, display arrangements and the like. In addition, in the back of the binder are a dozen sheets regarding cooperative dealer plans, meaning how to coordinate the promotion of Colgate products with major dealers or retailers carrying its products. Finally, there are two mimeographed copies of a single sheet typed letter which served as a cover letter to dealers (retailers) about Colgate's new cooperation plan, and it is possible might have also been sent in conjunction with binders such as this. 11 tabs, with abbreviations for categories. T.S. for "toilet soap", but what today we simply be labeled soaps -- 54 plates. "Shav", for shaving soaps -- 13 leaves. "Ext", for Extracts -- 52 plates, 15 in color; T.W., for Toilet Water -- 19 plates, 2 in color; "G. BXS", for Gift Boxes -- 25 plates, 11 in color; "CRMS", for Creams -- eight plates, one in color; "T.P.", which we don't know what it abbreviates, but containing smelling salts, glycerine -- 4 plates; "DENT" -- now what can that be for? Hmm. -- 9 plates; "PWDS", or Powders -- 49 plates, 3 in color, although two of these belong in another tab; "VAS", or Vaseline -- 36 plates, one in color; "HOTEL" -- 5 plates, 2 in color. The actual use of a binder such as this is something we can not be 100 sure of, but we suspect it was used both in-house, as a easy reference of current products, as something to show outsiders such as dealers, maybe investors, or whoever else the company had relations with. It would certainly have been in the hands of the company's sales staff to show customers. And it is possible this type of binder was sent to dealers, as we already suggested. We would note that the plates are numbers, but the numbers skip around wildly and are of no use in terms of pagination of the binder.The advantage of a stab binding is that sheets could be added or subtracted with ease, as products and/or their graphics changed over time. We base the 1923 dating on the cover letter in the back, but the individual sheets contained within could be earlier or later. Given the graphics, the style of packaging, etc., with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco sensibilities and aesthetics ubiquitous, it is safe to say that 1923 is a good mean average for the date of all the material. There is a note on a yellow bound sheet at the front that this was a gift to a longstanding employee in 1978, someone who began at the company in 1931. Obviously, the gift was meant as a sentimental relic that captured past glory. The binding is heavily rubbed but structurally solid. The plates are soiled, generally lightly, and there are a good number of plates with pencil notes and stray scrawls. Much of this can be removed, if one wishes to make the effort. One should not expect to get rid of all the dusty-looking soiling, but one can certainly mitigate it, again, with effort. The sheets in the back have edge chips and roll up at their right edge. (Inventory #: 20097)