ORIGINAL 1898 ST LOUIS COFFIN CO ILLUSTRATED CATALOG FUNERAL SUPPLIES HEARSES

Description

Exceptionally rare and simply fantastic (if you find the macabre fascinating), original 1898 Hard Cover Catalog of Caskets, Casket Hardware, Burial Clothing, Mortuary Supplies, Funeral Home decor and Horse Drawn Hearses (among other death and burial sundries) manufactured by The St. Louis Casket Company of St. Louis, Missouri.
This comprehensive, fully illustrated catalog measures approx. 9 1/4” by 6” and contains 249 pages. Nearly every single page in the Catalog is extensively illustrated with images of the company’s products and descriptions of those products. In 1898 The St. Louis Casket Company was well on its way to becoming the largest manufacturer and distributor of Funeral and Burial Supplies – by 1909 the company employed 1500 “souls” and was capable of turning out 1500 caskets a week.
This truly amazing Catalog is titled “Art Edition No. 19 / St Louis Coffin Co,”. The first seven pages of the Catalog features photographic views of the factory and its numerous departments including the factory’s “Sample Showroom”, The Hearse Department with a lineup of stunningly beautiful, horse drawn hearses, The Sewing Department with “48 Girls” at electric Sewing Machines, the machine shop, the painting room, the “Ornamentation Room”, etc.
The next 70 pages or show present the Company’s line of caskets in everything from the simple “Hospital Case” to the sublime “Fully Ornamented, Rolled Steel, Cloth Covered Metallic Casket” fit for a king and rumored to cost 00.00 – a veritable fortune in 1898. The next few pages offer folding display cases that could be used in the funeral home to present the various types of caskets for the “bereaved” to choose from.
The following section is perhaps the “creepiest” - 13 pages of “Ladies Tailor Made Burial Robes and Dress”. These pages look pretty much like the high fashion pages from a department store catalog with beautiful, young women with broad shoulders and tiny little waists (no wonder they died – if I cinched my waist like that it would certainly kill me)modeling the latest in “death clothes”. Next comes 10 pages of equally creepy “Men’s Tailor Made Burial Robes and Suits” followed by THE creepiest of all – 10 pages of “Boy’s Burial Suits” and “Girl’s Burial Dresses” modeled by charming little children that seem to have the pale look of death on many of their faces.
Next we have those all important “Accessories” that help to drive the price of a funeral up – 20 pages of casket linings and pillows, 24 pages of ornate Casket Handles, 12 pages of Casket Plates with sample engravings from “At Rest” to “Our Draling” to “Asleep” (really?), and a couple dozen pages of fancy metal ornaments, thumb screws, cap lifters, studs, escutcheons and trimmings of all kinds.
Next comes those supplies for the mortician and the decorations for the funeral home – embalming supplies, candelabra, pedestals, folding chairs (what’s a funeral home without folding chairs), coffin polish, “white lead” (don’t ask), drapes for the horses, drapes for the funeral director, drapes for the coffins, hammers, shovels, etc., etc.
The final section is without a doubt the most wonderful – 26 paged featuring full page illustrations of THE most beautiful, Horse Drawn Hearses from simple but dignified to fit for a king (a dead king that is). Of special interest are the two white “Child’s Hearses”. These Carriage a simply stunningly beautiful and the finest example of the Carriage Maker’s Art. These alone are worth the price of the Catalog!!
This is without a doubt one of the most comprehensive and beautiful Catalogs of this type we have ever had the pleasure of owning. It should be stressed that this is an ORIGINAL, 1898 Casket and Burial Supply Catalog - it is NOT a reprint, reissue, reproduction or modern printing but an original Catalog printed and distributed in 1898.
This very rare and simply outstanding, original 1898 St Louis Coffin Company Catalog is in excellent++ condition. It is beautifully bound in black cloth (what else) with blind stamped and gold gilt decoration on the front cover. The binding is tight and the covers well preserved – clean and crisp with a few minuscule, light surface blemishes only. All edges are gilt and the gilt is brilliant and very well preserved. The interior pages are printed on a very high quality, coated stock paper and all pages are clean and crisp and exceptionally well preserved. The binding is intact and all pages are present and tightly bound. Overall the Catalog is exceptionally well preserved and stunningly beautiful.
An exceptionally rare and simply fantastic, original 1898 Hard Cover Catalog of Caskets, Casket Hardware, Burial Clothing, Mortuary Supplies, Funeral Home decor and Horse Drawn Hearses (among other death and burial sundries) manufactured by The St. Louis Casket Company of St. Louis, Missouri and worthy of a place at the very center of the most advanced, museum quality Collection!!!
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