RO153d Reed & Thompson Match Stamp

The Reed & Thompson firm was composed of Edmund Reed and John C. Thompson doing business as the Boston Eagle Match Co., hence the eagle which is the most prominent feature of their stamp. The factory was located at East 9th St., corner of Old Harbor, and was in operation about three years. The firm first appears in the Boston directory for 1876-77 and is missing after 1880. They dropped out just about the time the Diamond Match Co. took over the Byam & Carlton business, as might be expected bv anyone familiar with the history of the match business. An upright rectangle of the lc size the stamp is a handsome of work and a credit to its engravers the National Bank Note Co. It is the last match stamp designed by that concern and was first printed by them. Later there was probably at least printing by the American Banknote Co., a few may also have been printed by Bureau. The Boston Eagle does not other match stamps engraved by National BN Co but in some is very much like a few of the American BN Co stamps. It is quite evident that the engraver who cut it had not done work on other National Banknote Co. stamps and worked with the American BN Co after the companies were consolidated. This supposition would account for the resemblance between the Boston Eagle and the Reading Match stamp particulatly in the engraving of the background. The curlycue ornaments that fill in the triangular spaces between the circular disk containing the eagle and the label at the top containing the inscription ONE CENT however are characteristic of many of the National Banknote Co. stamps.

Christopher West, Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News, sept 27, 1919 p. 329