Wow! This excellent reference sure is bringing a pretty penny. Ben should re-issue this so more collectors can afford to get a copy.
09/25 Update: High prices are flushing out other copies. As with so many other instances, the first movers get the best price. A copy sold today for only $102.50.
I love wholesaler catalogs as they can give an insight into when things were made and how widespread was the distribution of goods. Fabricius Mercantile was a small-fry outfit in St. Louis. Once the founder's son died in 1919, his two sons took over and renamed the business Fabricius Mercantile. It lasted only until 1936. Catalogs from them are quite hard to find. This catalog seems to be from about 1932 based on the Beistle goods shown on one of the pages. The page showing the candy containers and horns show goods predominantly made in Japan. All in all a great catalog bought for a good price.
These early Beistle catalogs almost never surface, so for the seller to offer it as BIN with a paltry price of $75 was an error, reinforced by the fact that it sold in less than 75 minutes. These catalogs, different from the Dennison Bogie Books in that they were meant for retailers and not end-user consumers, show the varied items Beistle was offering at the time, some of which were never offered again. For that reason alone, these catalogs are superb research tools. I regret that I didn't see this as it would have had a treasured place in my library.
This is the kind of listing that I look for to add to my knowledge base. I had long wondered which firm had made these diecuts. The examples I've seen never have any marks, so I've always speculated. This salesman sample from 1936 does answer the question of maker: the American Colortype Company of Chicago, Illinois. Yah!!
The United Novelty Manufacturing Company was just one of many, many wholesalers that existed as the final distribution channel for original manufacturers like Beistle. In fact, Beistle was the primary supplier to the wholesale supply segment relative to holiday decorations. I have examined each of these pages and cannot find a single example of an item made by a firm other than Beistle. This catalog is from ~1958-1963, evidenced by the numeral, 22, right after Chicago in the address line. These short city codes were used at that time as a sort of "proto-zip code" before the formal introduction of zip codes in the summer of 1963. Given the merchandise offered in these pages, I'd more narrowly estimate the catalog was issued in 1959. These catalogs are quite useful in helping date when items were originally produced. Since Beistle did not target the wholesale market as its primary distribution channel, in many cases at least one year went by between the date of an item's original manufacture and when it began appearing for sale by a wholesaler.
