Robertson appears to have been around through at least 1918, when they are still listed at the 256 Grenwhich address in city directories. American Caramel had an address at 233 Broadway in NYC, but they were headquartered in York, PA. They controlled most of the caramel industry in the US after they bought Lancaster from Milton Hershey.
I have found no evidence that the American Caramel company owned the Robertson Candy Company. Robertson is a small business, $10K is something like ~$300K today, their capital makes sense for a small operation and storefront. It is, though, entirely possible they were a subsidiary front. In the time of the anti-monopoly laws and much vagueness about what the federal government was really going to do, many industries dominated by a single company seem to be using informal shell companies to try and make it look more competitive. In the T220 Silver thread we've found much that strongly suggests this was exactly the case for American Lithography, and American Tobacco. Since the purpose of these smaller subsidiaries was to remain clandestine and appear to not be what they actually were, we aren't going to find a document saying this in journals and newspapers; if such a document was ever made and survived it would be in an archive or attic somewhere.
While the ATC and their friends Knapp and AL clearly had some kind of exclusivity agreement, I don't think its clear this was the case for most of the E cards. Lots of anonymous cards, lots of sets that seem to have been printed to advertise multiple products or companies, it could be that Robertson was one of many clandestine subsidiaries, or that someone there thought it would be a good idea to do what the big boys were doing
For the dates, I would be shocked if the Robertson sets predated the ACC ones. They must be the same time or after; it doesn't make sense the other way around.
That prewarcards site makes a lot of claims to fact, almost none of which are sourced. Many come from hobby tradition and are wrong because much of hobby tradition has never been researched, others they seem to have invented and are directly at odds with all evidence and the ledgers. Just looking at the T cards I've looked into the most, T218 is not 1910-1912 nor issued by Honest, it's 1910-1911 (as the ledger makes clear). T219 is not a 1910 set (impossible, some of the cards it copies weren't made until 1911). T220 is 1910-1911, not just 1910. T225 is not a 1911 set, it is an early 1910 set as the Fullgraff ledger makes clear. T9 is 1910-1911, not just 1911. T223 is probably a 1910-1911 or 1911 release, not 1910, the answer to this one probably lies in the Fullgraff ledger if we ever got to see a full copy of all pages. T227 appears dated correct, but sure wasn't issued by Mecca. The site is riddled with false dates and claims in regards to the boxing cards at least.
I have an E75 master, E76, most of E47 and no Robertson's. The Robertson's are brutal to find; no idea what they are really worth nowadays as I haven't seen any recent sale the last couple years. Had one as a type on my wantlist.
|