The Diamond Match Company: A Century of Service, of Progress, and of Growth 1835-1935.

MANCHESTER, Herbert.

$450.00

Item Number: 138319

New York: The Diamond Match Company, 1935.

First edition of Manchester’s history of the Diamond Match Company. Octavo, original stiff paper wrappers, illustrated. In near fine condition. Rare.

The largest manufacturer of matches in the United States throughout the late nineteenth century, The Diamond Match Company, while it was incorporated at the end of 1880, traces its ancestry back to several nineteenth century companies. In the early 1850s, Edward Tatnall of Wilmington, Delaware was given an English recipe for making matches by a business acquaintance, William R. Smith. In 1853, Tatnall attempted to turn the recipe into a business at Market Street Bridge over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. By 1932, after changing hands several time, The Diamond Match Company operated plants at Barberton, Ohio; Wilmington, Delaware (now located in the East Brandywine Historic District); Barber, California (later Chico); Springfield, Massachusetts; Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Oswego, New York, and Cloquet, Minnesota.