Diamond Medal guarantee

[ToasterPastry]

There has always been some discussion regarding the National Pen Company in Chicago, and their production of their sub-brand Diamond Medal. I thought it would be interesting, if not educational, to show the guarantee enclosed with a Diamond Medal Pen. There is no doubt where Diamond Medal Pens were sold. I think that people forget that Sears in their day were not Walmart, but more like Amazon.com, a department store that sold everything to everyone. I have other paperwork of this sort from Parker and Union Pen. This is my first scan. By the way, Diamon-ite is actually...jade celluloid (most likely the same resin produced by Dupont in the 1920s...I don't recall Dupont's name).

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Diamond_Medal_Guarantee.jpg

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Diamond_Medal_Instructions_2.jpg

[philm]

Nice find W... Thank you very much for letting us see it.

 

Phil

[Johnny Appleseed]

Thanks for posting this ToasterPastry.

 

One clarification - Diamond Medal was not a sub-brand of National that was sold through Sears so much as a Sears-owned brand that contracted with National to make the pens. Later Sears would source through Parker, and then through another company - possibly C.E. Barrett. Nobody other than Sears sold Diamond Medal pens.

 

It is amazing to look through a Sears catalog from this era. They really did sell everything. It isn't exactly Amazin, as they have a clear inventory and do not act as a conduit for a variety of vendors - but you could get everything from hunting rifles, to house plans, to farm equipment, to the latest fashion in ladies dresses from the Sears catalog. Need a watch fob, a baby blanket, an irrigation pump or a milking machine? It's in there!

 

For a significant period of American history, much of the country relied on the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs for basic supplies as well as luxory items. Pioneers settling the great plains in the 1880s and 1890s swore by these catalogs and sourced from them wherever there was a reliable post office and railway line.

 

John

Edited February 2, 2010 by Johnny Appleseed

[artaddict]

Very interesting, thanks for posting!