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1950 · 54848 — Cincinnati OH: The Melville Company ca. 1950. 4to. 39 8.5 x 11 in. fashion plates with 97 tipped-in fabric samples including cotton cotton blends cotton-rayon blends satin nylon for men & women’s fashions dresses lingerie pants suits skirts. order blank booklet preserved in original cardboard portfolio w/ company design logo on rear flap an excellent collection. First edition of this scarce and unusually complete salesman sample sales kit for women’s dresses fashions coats lingerie as well as men’s overcoats underwear & socks and even women’s outerwear rubber pocket books and overcoats in post-World War II America. The Melville Company was a coordinated direct-sales fashion company supplied by Harford Frocks Inc. which maintained a large mail order tailoring operation in Ohio from the early 1920s up through the 1970s employing 100s of tailors and seamstresses to fill orders together with J.C. Field & Son Inc. direct marketing firm. The company focused on “plus sizes†while maintaining how these fashions emphasized trim appearances survived on a constant sales force composed primarily of young women and house wives earning extra money willing to peddle door-to-door and created a high-quality product. The catalogue offers invaluable illustrated historical reference for the colours styles and fabrics during the explosion and impact of Christian Dior’s new designs reflecting the refined femininity with severely cinched waists extra padding to the hips longer and decidedly more romantic skirts and dresses as well as nicely fitted jacket-and-skirt tailored suits. Israel 1901-1991 built and ran this very successful mail order dressmaking operation which also owned the Fashion Frocks Dress Company as well and operated out of the Oesterlein Machine Company historic building in Cincinnati OH now home to the American Sign Museum. The Melville Company, unknown