Sale 2520 | Lot 383
(CANTON, OHIO—REPUBLIC STAMPING AND ENAMELING COMPANY) A tremendously detailed and vast company album entitled On The Job at the Republic Stamping and Enamel Co. containing over 1400 candid photographs, accompanied by humorous captions, portraying the chipper employees “clowning” at their various workstations, enjoying company outings and celebratory parties, and frolicking on their lunch hours.
The meticulously compiled album gives insight into the company’s relaxed and good-natured environment and depicts a workforce apparently equally male and female, clad in workwear and Rosie-the-Riveter style attire. The album is rife with hundreds of identified portraits and light-hearted captions such as “Coke drinker,” “gossiping with coffee,” “craps game in the blacksmith shop,” and “hard worker” (beneath a photograph of a man relaxing with his leg on the table). Other images show the workers, nearly all of whom are identified by name or nickname, at their respective stations: “dipping” pails, plates, and saucepans; “beaders” working on stockpots, bowls, and basins; and enamelers “pulling racks” and loading the furnace chain for “waretakers” to sort, wrap, and pack dishes for shipment. The latter portion of the album is devoted to the numerous company picnics, parties, softball games, and bowling nights, testifying to the strong friendships carried on after-hours. Throughout the album are a few photographs identifying the photographer/compiler as “Myself” or “Me.” Silver prints, the images mostly measuring 2x3 inches (5.1x7.6 cm.), with some as large as 5x7 inches (12.7x17.8 cm.), the majority with typed caption labels affixed beneath. Thick oblong 4to, crocodile leatherette; twin-bolt binding. 1943-51
[1,500/2,500]
