Mobilier

1893 · 56869 — Salem OR: Buren & Hamilton 1893-1904. 4to. 90 mylar sleeve leaves unnumbered. containing 403 invoices shipping & waybills TLS ALS TL copy letters and more many of which appear on steel-engraved letterhead many printed on colour-tinted paper often shipping and weight bills still retaining original stamps a few mailing envelopes a number of check receipts many w/ manuscript and stamped autographs others w/ corrections and/or annotations in ink or pencil; also included are actual samples of velvet fabrics wallpapers and textured colour sample papers printing sample for perforated business card. All preserved in recent 3-ring cloth binder stamping on front cover. An exceptional archive of original letters invoices waybills business cards and receipts all documenting the thriving business of Buren & Hamilton at the end of the Gilded Age and beginning of the Progressive Era in Salem Oregon in the aftermath of the 1893 economic crash. Drawing from suppliers in California just a few years before the San Francisco Earthquake & Fire the company also sourced from Seattle WA New York and Chicago. Portland was the manufacturing and industrial hub of Oregon as can be seen in these invoices and receipts: such companies as The Columbia Chair Company Dealers who sold chairs office chairs and rockers from 309-311 Front St. shipped rocking chairs and office chairs to Salem in 1903; Henry Jenning & Sons located at 172-174 First St. shipped a load of leather oak chairs in 1903; J.G. Mack & Co. located at 86 & 88 Third St. in Portland supplied velvet rugs oil cloths and lamp shades in 1903; while the A. Merle Co. and McCord & Work located on Water St. supplied brass and iron bed frames the same year. Buren & Hamilton also sourced mattresses and sacks of recycled denim cotton “Shoddy†from Peters & Roberts Furniture Co. for mattresses; and purchased often from the Portland Mattress & Upholstery Co. at 18-20 Front St. which supplied wool-combed coverings mattresses mattress tops from 1900-1904 -- their factory would be gutted by fire in 1907. Many of the items were shipped down the Willamette River on the Oregon City Transportation Co. ships with a note from 1904 indicating the company had completed a sale of odd sized mattresses to them; numerous Southern Pacific Oregon Division freight bills; as well as a shipment on the SS Oregonian via the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. of five crates of chair seats from Marshall Field & Co.In addition it appears that Oregonians in and around Salem purchased heavily from the store luxury goods such as beveled mirrors framed artwork sleek wallpapers velvet fabrics tapestries oriental rugs and more. Many of the invoices letters waybills and documents record many items supplied by the storied W.P. Fuller & Co. of San Francisco & Sacramento CA as well as their subsidiary in Portland OR. They were main suppliers of beveled and mirrored glass on the Pacific Coast which often had to be imported from England into the U.S. and several of the orders in 1899-1901 note that the company was having issues supplying such pieces to Buren & Hamilton due to labor difficulties finally sourcing mirrors from Pilkington Bros. English Picture Glass. They occasionally canceled orders and the Fuller Co. writes in 1901 over a canceled order of “deadening felt.†The W.P. Fuller Co. explain that “your reasons for wishing to cancel your order are not considered sufficient to justify us in doing so . . . †and that they were aware that “some of our competitors are circulating unjust and untrue reports concerning us all the time.†Included amongst these letters are samples of cotton backing for carpets and even three original samples of wallpaper. There are also present a number of letters and invoices from the firm of Tozer & Son which took over the W.P. Fuller Wallpaper division about 1901 with letters present making that announcement. Of additional interest are the many invoices letters and waybills back and forth with the storied Schussler Bros. on 119-121 Geary St. Star King Building in San Francisco detailing many of the popular framed and matted photographs and images for Salem shoppers. These encompassed the “Lone Indian†which were often reproductions of the iconic End of the Trail sculpture by James Earle Fraser; Athletes Dutch Windmills Shakespeare prints of assorted types and sizes Lone Arab a Chinese print a boxing series of matted “Deal of a Fellow†Madonna Artotypes -- typically reproductions of Raphael’s Madonna and Taber art photos. Many of the letters bill heads and invoices sport steel engraved architectural vignettes documenting buildings which would be destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire as well as many of the business records for those companies. One of the freight bills bears the photographic letterhead of the Chicago & North-Western Railway Co. dated 1904. Another significant supplier was the D.N. & E. Walter & Co. of San Francisco which supplied linoleum flooring fabrics and more for Buren & Hamilton from 1899-1904 and even includes in one of the letters a piece of the red velvet fabric they no longer carried.Buren & Hamilton was originally founded in the late 1880’s by A.T. Yeaton as a furniture/undertaker business later sold to A.B. Buren and finally sold to Max O. Buren and Clarence Hamilton who operated at three locations along Commercial St. including Greenbaum’s Building at 298 Commercial the building at 136 Commercial 340 Court St. now Sid’s Furniture. Clarence bought out Max Buren’s shares in 1916 becoming the C.S. Hamilton Furniture Co. and operating until it was sold to Rubenstein’s in the 1960’s. See: Norma Hamilton Cochran Historic Businesses -- Hamilton Furniture Salem History Matters March 17 2017; New Stationery Department of Schussler Brothers San Francisco The American Stationer Vol. LIV 1903 pp. 4-5; John Caldbick Panic of 1893 and its Aftermath HistoryLink Essay 20874 Oct. 1 2019. Buren & Hamilton, hardcover