Smith's Mello Mint (E105) Wrappers, Newspaper Ads, & Other Information

[4815162342]

I found these and thought I would share with the board. If these have already been posted and/or discussed before, my sincerest apologies.

[Danny Smith]

Very cool. I love that set.

[CobbSpikedMe]

These are great. So little is known about these that this kind of thing is really neat. Any thoughts on whether the cards were folded to be placed in the packs or not?

[Bridwell]

Those are awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Any idea what year they are from?

[Bridwell]

I just did a search on Google and found the top one was a newspaper ad from October 1912.

[4815162342]

All of the ads are from 1912. The jar ad intrigues me the most. It looks like the jar contained gum packs...kinda.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

These are great. So little is known about these that this kind of thing is really neat. Any thoughts on whether the cards were folded to be placed in the packs or not?

Is it the E105 Mello Mints or the E106 cards that are commonly found with a vertical crease running down the middle of the card? If it is the E105's, then they quite possibly were folded to insert into that gum package shown.

Brian

[CobbSpikedMe]

It's definitely the mello mints with the crease. But there are so many that don't have the crease that makes me wonder if they were given away in another manner as well.

[4815162342]

A little more research on Smith's Mello Mint Gum and the Texas Gum Co. has yielded the following:

Texas Gum Co. factory in Temple, Texas


Federal court case between Texas Gum Co. and Autosales Gum & Chocolate Co. (owner of Colgan Gum Co.)



An article mentioning this patent infringement case



Also, thanks to an awesome board member I was able to acquire an original wrapper, which as you can see, matches the newspaper ads.

[4815162342]

Just 5 Danny. {insert marathon comment}

How about you?

[Danny Smith]

Stuck at 22. The marathon gets a lot more painful as you get further along.

[teetwoohsix]

Great research Daryl! Amazing adds. Thanks for posting those!

Sincerely, Clayton

[4815162342]

Below are two other Smith's Mello Mint wrappers:



I believe the top wrapper is for an individual stick of gum, while my wrapper (earlier post in this thread) is for a 5-pack.

The bottom wrapper appears to be given out as a promotion of some kind; "unfolded" E105 examples were probably distributed this way.

Many thanks to fellow board member Mark M. for the scan of these two wrappers.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

Below are two other Smith's Mello Mint wrappers:



I believe the top wrapper is for an individual stick of gum, while my wrapper (earlier post in this thread) is for a 5-pack.

The bottom wrapper appears to be given out as a promotion of some kind; "unfolded" E105 examples were probably distributed this way.

Many thanks to fellow board member Mark M. for the scan of these two wrappers.

Those are freaking awesome wrappers. Thanks for showing them and thanks to Mark M. for sharing. Great looking wrappers that are super duper rare.

Coincidentally, I was in IT sales for over 20 yrs until 2 yrs ago. My largest customer almost the whole time was Mclane Company (a 30B$$ distributor) based in Temple Texas. I have been there at least 50 times but haven't ever looked for cards .

[4815162342]

Forgive me for resurrecting this old thread that I started over 12 years ago during my first attempt at collecting this set. I have a couple of additional advertisements that I now own and would like to add here.

I picked up this framed magazine ad from LOTG last fall.



I also found this ad for “The Multigraph” featuring a testimonial by the Texas Gum Company’s “Mr. Smith.” It was printed in the February 15, 1913 weekly edition of the Scientific American and reprinted in the 1913 annual bound edition. I picked up copies of both from eBay earlier last year.



Look closely at the letter head. There is a small “Smith’s Mello-Mint” logo underneath the larger Texas Gum Company heading. The description reads “Letter-Head printed in red, green and black, on the Multigraph, at an annual saving of $550. Size 8 1/2 x 11.”

So, the Texas Gum Company had the ability to print their own advertising cards and their own letterhead with a small 1.5 to 2 inch Mello-Mint logo most likely in the full red, green, and black color scheme like the framed ad above as well as the wrapper in post #9 that I used to own (and would very much like to own again!).

Could they have also printed the green backs of their baseball cards with the Multigraph? Could this possibly be why E105s are printed on such thin paper stock? Am I crazy? If anyone knows more about Multigraph printing during this time period, or about the printing of the E105 set, please chime in.

[gabrinus]

That's cool Daryl...Jerry

[autograf]

To tie a nonsports interest into Texas Gum Company, they issued a nonsports 'chips' set similar in stature although slightly larger than Colgan's. Tougher to find than the BB Mellomints. A group appeared on ebay a few years ago and none have been seen since that I'm aware of. There are at least 4-5 different tins like the Colgan's. A thread about this set is at:

https://forum.vintagenonsports.com/p...pid=1302810719

some images

[phlflyer1]

Daryl and Tom,

Thanks to you both for sharing the items and information on Texas Gum. Love seeing advertisements and items related to vintage sets like this.