E92 - Montague & Co. (Crofts Cocoas)

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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