Whips and Thongs

Holcomb & Cook, Manufacturers of Whips & Thongs

[EQUESTRIAN]. Bought of Holcomb & Cook, Manufacturers of Whips & Thongs [Billhead, accomplished in MS]

Westfield, Mass. H. Holcombe, E.G. Cook, 1880. Single sheet, three horizontal folds (trifle soiling along one fold on verso). The verso is docketed (no doubt by the purchaser): "Holcombe Cook / Bill $21.04 / July 17, '80." Very good. Item #3247

Curious relic of an era in which most transportation and industry was powered by the horse. We forget that manufacturing was an important industry, and Westfield, Mass. was a major producer of same.

Offered here is an amusing, easily misunderstood billhead dated July 17, 1880, from Holcomb & Cook, "Manufacturers of Whips and Thongs" (the latter of course being the tassles at the end of a whip). The firm was founded in Westfield (Hampden County, Mass.) by Solomon Shepard' upon his death in 1875 the ferrier became simply Holcomb & Cook.

The purchaser of this $21 order (!) was the historic General Store of Glover, Warner & Clark, which for decades was effectively at the very center of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The store was established in 1861 when William B. Glover took James H. Warner into partnership with him; it subsequently became the Red Brick General Store. Well into the twentieth century it was esteemed for the diversity of their merchandise and the quality of their meats, initially supplied by Homer Clark, and subsequently his son George Sr. Unable to hold out against the national chains, the Red Brick Store closed in 1978.

Price: $35.00