RO119b Ives & Judd Match Stamp, Rag Hollow CT

Among the many match factories bought out by the Diamond Match Company about 1882 was the one at Rag Hollow. The purchase of the factory led to a disagreement between the parties thereto, and did not result in Mr. Dunham’s retirement from the business. He not only obtained possession of the building again, but within a year managed to acquire the necessary machinery and material with which to resume business. The new concern, which was the last to operate the Rag Hollow factory, issued the stamp bearing the above title, and was composed of Edw. P. Dunham and his sister, the widow of Howard C. Ives. To one familiar with the history of the Rag Hollow factory in the early eighties, the seventh and last Rag Hollow match stamp bears interesting evidence of the disagreement mentioned above. It is rather interesting to note that the Connecticut Business Directory for 1884 lists E. P. Dunham & Co. and the Ives & Judd Match Co. at West Cheshire and also the firm of Ives & Judd at Prospect.

The second time the Rag Hollow factory was sold to the Diamond Match Company they bought it for keeps and no reference to it is found later. Perhaps one may be pardoned for speculating pleasurably upon the design of an eighth Rag Hollow match stamp, had there been one, as perhaps there would have been if the match tax had remained in force long enough to permit a third sale of this Fifty Dollar shack in the woods to the immensely powerful Diamond Match Company. Probably a great many of the copies now in existence came from some remainders, of which Mr. Dunham has given away, or sold, small quantities at various times. He remembers having had a sheet, or part of a sheet, but disposed of the last some time ago. Very few of the copies seen appear to have been used. None of the last nor any of the other six Rag Hollow stamps are known to exist with original gum. Mr. Dunham states the stamps were always ordered ungummed and that just before they were used the sheets were laid face downward and gummed by running a whitewash brush, or large paint brush dipped in paste across them. He states that two girls employed at the factory would affix as many as $500 worth of stamps in one day.