Vintage 1940s-1950s Coats & Clark's Automatic Reorder Card Metal Box Good Paint

Description

The Coats & Clark Sewing Thread Company began in in Paisley, Scotland (near Glasgow) in the 1750s. Silk, the primary thread used in weaving at that time, became quite scarce due to Britain’s war with France in the latter 1700s (the American Revolution was a smaller part of that larger war). To keep the industry going, the inventive Clark brothers came up with a method for twisting cotton to make thread that was strong enough to replace silk and linen for weaving and hand sewing. They opened a mill and invented a process for winding thread onto wooden spools. Remember those? Impressed by the Clarks’ success, the nearby Coats family also began producing cotton threads. Both brands became popular in America when spools of threads arrived with British sailors, and the Coats and Clark brands were exported from Britain to North America until 1861. US Civil War tariffs and trade embargoes made exporting costs prohibitive, so both brands began manufacturing in the US. By the late 1800s, the Coats and Clark families merged operations. Cotton thread was transferred to plastic spools in the 1970s, but home sewing continues to be a popular activity in 21
st
-century America.
This is a metal box that would have been hung near the sewing thread isle, so fabric store employees could collect the cards of sold out colors to be re-ordered. The contraption is 7 x 5 x 2.75 inches (18 x 13 x 7 cm) in dimension. Granted that the bottom half looks rusted, but that is patina. The underlying metal is still strong -- there are no weak patches. And the paint is very strong except for the one word "here" which must have been scratched off. Has handy hanging holes on top and bottom. Use it to decorate your vintage sewing room (with the treadle machine), keep it near your present-day machine to store scissors, seam rippers, and other accessories, or add a touch of sewing nostalgia to your sewing center. Shipped free in US. And look for other advertising collectibles at www.ebay.com/str/agitpropshoppe
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