E92 - Montague & Co. (Crofts Cocoas)

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Posted By: Scott Mosley

I know we discussed this a little bit many months back when Leon questioned the E92 classification for Crofts Cocoas.

Rather than dig up that old thread, I thought I would start a new one and share a recent pickup that sheds a little more light on the relationship between Montague & Co. and the Croft & Allen Co.

It would definitely appear that these two companies were business partners and not competitors.

Besides the E92 cards that advertise for Montague & Co. but have Crofts Cocoa displayed on the back there are a couple of related items which mention both companies on them.

Richard Wong has a spoon with both Montague & Co. and Crofts embossed on it that he shared in the previous thread.

Recently, I picked up the following tin that, again, displays the relationship between Montague & Co. and Croft & Allen as being makers of Confections and Chocolates respectively.



The logo on the bottom of the tin matches nicely with the following picture of the Montague & Co. plant circa 1916 that I found while doing some research earlier this year.



One more interesting little tidbit is that the tin is almost perfectly sized to to fit an E92 card.



The subject matter on the tin certainly doesn't suggest having a baseball card inside but it is interesting to speculate about just the same...

Anyone else have any Crofts Cocoa items, scans or speculation about the issue that they'd like to share?

Edited to add scan of a Crofts Cocoa Back

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Posted By: B.C.Daniels

that post card is very cool! Where did you pick that up from?

BcD

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Posted By: Scott Mosley

I am assuming you are talking about the picture of the Montague & Co. plant?

It does look a bit like a postcard from the scan but it is actually a picture taken from a Philadelphia area business magazine issued in 1916 that I found while doing some research on the company.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has any items related to either Croft & Allen or Montague & Co. or even just use this thread as an excuse for fellow collectors to show off their Montague & Co (Crofts Cocoa) or Croft & Allen cards...

Scott

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Posted By: leon

Cool stuff Scott'o.....

and if I can get my 10 yr old to quit tugging on me to play I can scan another item or so.... not sure how that's going to go...

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Posted By: Kelly

I have included a picture of a Crofts Cocoa jar that I own from this time period. The label in the picture is the actual label on the back of the cards. I can easily put an E92 card into the top of the jar. I have often wondered if the cards were inserted into the jars against the dry cocoa. I also think they must have been given out at local Drug stores where Crofts Cocoa was sold "on a fountain".

It is difficult to scan a piture of a jar, but it also has a back label with mixing instructions and a tin imprinted lid. In the picture in the top left corner is brown spots. That is actual cocoa in the jar. It still retains about 15% of the jars original contents. As with old card packs with gum, I wouldn't recommend eating it.

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Posted By: robert a

Your threads are always interesting Scott.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Kelly:

I remember a few years ago talking to a couple collectors about how the cards didn't fit into the Croft's Bottle, but we were referring to the clear Croft's bottle.

We may never know if the "cocoas" came in the cocoa, but I don't see why not unless perhaps they were given away at "the fountain."

Rob

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Posted By: Richard

Robert - the bottles with the paper label are basically the clear bottle with the label - same size.

We have speculated before in a prior thread on the distribution of the crofts cocoa cards. My belief is that they were handed out by the cashier in the dry goods stores when someone bought a bottle/container of cocoa.

Here are some more items related to Crofts Cocoa, Montague and Co. and Wilbur & Sons (the company which preceeds Montague):

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Posted By: Scott Mosley

Glad to see that this thread is prompting at least a little discussion again on the Crofts Cocoas...

Kelly, glad to see that you acquired a bottle with label on it as I remember you looking for one a year or two back.

Richard and Leon, I am always glad to see your posts of items related to cards so I know that I'm not the only one out there that collects this type of stuff

As far as the idea of the Crofts Cocoa cards coming inside of one of the jars, I understand the reasoning for that type of speculation but I think that it is highly unlikely that they did.

My reasoning being that the cards with the Crofts Cocoa bottle on them were issued by Montague & Company who had nothing to do with the manufactoring of Crofts Cocoa.

The two companies were obviously business partners but I'm sure that Montague & Co. would have been the ones to distribute the "Crofts Cocoa" cards and not Croft & Allen (who were the manufactorers of Crofts Cocoa) since the cards are really advertising Montague & Company and the fact that they sell Crofts Cocoa out of their store fronts.

Croft & Allen already had their own cards (advertising Crofts Candy) which were likely distributed with their chocolate candy bar type of products.

Richard and I have talked about this in the past and both feel that the Crofts Cocoa cards were likely distributed from the Montague & Co. store fronts (they had several store fronts throughout Philadelphia during the 1909-1910 time period) and would more than likely have been handed out when purchases were made or included in a Montague & Co. product such as the tin that I displayed above.

Certainly can't prove this theory to be 100% correct but I think it is quite plausible and probably closer to being "correct" than the idea that the cards were distributed with the Crofts Cocoa jars themselves.

Just my .02 cents...

Scott

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Posted By: leon

Great stuff Richard...excellent thread..This box is about 9w x 8d x 2h .....not sure where it fits in but it's associated somehow.....this is the front inside cover and part of the box, and the outside front