Description

Description: We offer an excellent pasteboard box, with an engraved label, from Horace H. Day India Rubber Works. It is 15 3/8” long, 6 ½” deep and 2” high with an embossed gold rim around the lid. There is a wood engraved illustration of the Horace Day manufacturing plant in New Brunswick, NJ and a detailed explanation of Day’s bitter rivalry over patents with Charles Goodyear. It is dated January 1st, 1847 and signed by the engraving firm of [Benson] Lossing & [William] Barritt. Item #DA00208.

Horace H. Day (1813- 1878) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was an eccentric business man, an inventor, and a spiritualist. Day made his fortune as the proprietor of the India Rubber Company, and subsequently became embroiled in lengthy and expensive litigation with Charles Goodyear over a patent for the vulcanization of rubber. In his later years, Day purchased property from the Niagara Water Power Company consisting of 700 acres bordering the Niagara River. He died in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Condition: The edges are lightly worn and the white paper is a bit dingy from age, however the box is in good condition.