Bidspirit auction | PAIR OF OHIO SALESMAN SAMPLE

PAIR OF OHIO SALESMAN SAMPLE GLOVES - White Rubber Company, Ravenna, 20th century. Tiny, insulated rubber gloves, marked. 5” long. The first decades of the 20th century brought a manufacturing boom to Ravenna which included more than half a dozen rubber companies, one of which was the White Rubber Company, founded in 1919. One of the company?s key early products was the bladder or sac for ink in fountain pens, allowing pens to be ?self-filling, ? and at one time, White Rubber was the leading producer of all such ink sacs in the United States, supplying all the major fountain pen manufacturers. A second wave of success came with the development of a production method for reusable rubber gloves and with the first patent for the specially insulated rubber gloves worn by linemen, the production of which parallel the boom of electric line installations across the country. Pen sac production was shut down in the 1980s, and the White Rubber Company, eventually acquired by W.H. Salisbury & Co. of Skokie, Illinois, closed for good in 2007 as part of a consolidation plan that moved the remaining production lines to Charleston, South Carolina. Provenance: the collection of Marci and Dean Zimmerman, Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE: We are happy to answer questions and take additional photos of lots prior to the auction (the sooner submitted the better). Any updates or new photographs will be posted to the catalog on our website. Please check there prior to placing bids to ensure that you have the most up-to-date information. SHIPPING: We offer in-house shipping on all lots in this auction. Please see the terms for more information and contact us for a packing/shipping estimate. Condition: Good condition.