J. Wiss & Sons Co. 1848-1976 - Scans of Vintage Material

J. Wiss & Sons Co., Newark, NJ - 1848-1976
Scans of vintage catalogs, books, ephemera, mementos, etc.

Major Catalogs:	Search this web site:

Year:	1907	1915	1925	1927	1930	1934	1937	1941	1950	1963	1975
Cover:
Includes:
Razors	X	X
Shears	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Tin Snips	X	X	X	X	X	X	X			X
Pruners	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Garden					X	X	X			X	X
Form No:			51-25	51-27	53-30	54-34	55-37	55-37	58-50	64
Size:	8vo	8vo	8vo	16mo	8vo	8vo	12mo	12mo	4to	4to	4to
Pages:	64	88	80	48	84	84	52	32	28	16	16
Files:	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF	PDF
Pages:	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs	JPGs

A Story of Shears and Scissors: Their origin and growth in the Old World and the New, with particular emphasis on the development of the arts of making and selling fine quality shears and scissors in America, which parallels the first hundred years of J. Wiss & Sons Co., 1848-1948. Published by J. Wiss & Sons Co., Newark, NJ, 1948. The book was commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company. 32 pages, plus covers. Book availability: Amazon and WorldCat Libraries. This letter from B.E. Bostwick accompanied the book when copies were sent to its dealers on November 23, 1948. Also a local newspaper clip on its release.
The edge of excellence since 1848. is the 125th anniversary publication for 1973. 24 pages. 8-1/2" x 11".
Catalogs, brochures, price lists, correspondence by decade:
- 1970s: Catalogs, wholesale price lists and cut sheets from 1973-1976. This is a very complete collection of the product line as of the end of Wiss family ownership in 1976.
- 1960s: Catalog pages, price lists and cut sheets.
- 1950s: Catalog pages, inserts included with shears, price lists and cut sheets.
- 1940s: Catalogs and instructions for the FH-3.
- 1930s: Catalogs, price lists, and booklets.
- 1920s: Catalogs, price list and marketing material.
- 1910s: Catalog with prices and booklet. Catalog includes 31 pages on straight razors and strops.
- 1900s: Catalog with prices. With 23 pages on razors. Also booklets and flyers.
- 1890s: Flyers.
- 1870s: Correspondence.

There is a new section on razors. Wiss made high quality straight razors until the mid-1920s. This section is an identification aide and the feature is pictures of 65 razors, sets, and strops.
A collection of pictures of various shears and scissors. Items selected for being unusual, the pictures being really good, being in a family collection, or some whim. To get started only a few are up.
Shears & Scissors for Sewing
Other Shears & Scissors
Garden Shears
Gift & Tool Sets
Tinners' Snips
Mementos & Ephemera. Includes an old Christmas card, things given out at the 1948 centennial, tie tacks, etc. Now on their own page with thumbnail images.
Point-Of-Sale Marketing Items covers countertop displays, posters (with some showing the Stages of Manufacture), and felt for putting under shears. Includes the common T.G.I.F. sign that is marketed on eBay as being rare.
Wiss distributed a variety of display cases with some doubling as stock containers. They either sat on a counter or floor, or hung from a wall. Some revolved. I've collected pictures of ones that have passed through eBay: Display Cases and Cabinets.

Pictures of the Littleton Avenue factory from early postcards through the mid-20th century. Then pictures of now. The factory was moved to this location in 1887. Various street numbers were used over the years as their address. They used different numbers in different publications in order to track inquires. Then, after they added departments for that, they used number 33.
In 1887, when the factory moved up the hill to Littleton Ave and retail stayed downtown, a third division was established: Wiss Realty Corporation, a real estate holding company. In 1903 it built Newark's first skyscraper. The retail store (Wiss Jewelry) was one of its first tenants. There are also pictures of the building as it is now.

Jacob Wiss's Birthplace in Solothurn, Switzerland. Picture taken by N Freddie Wiss on a trip there. Also a larger size.
A biography of Jacob Wiss from Biographical and Genealogical History of the City Newark and Essex County, N.J., by Frederick W Ricord, Sophia B Ricord. Published by Lewis Publishing Co, New York, 1898. Pages 581-583. WorldCat. A reprint is available at Amazon and some shorter edition can be found online at BookPrep.
An entry for Frederick C.J. Wiss appears on page 549 of Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens: Biographies and Portraits of the Notable Living Men and Women of New Jersey... by Editor-in-Chief, William E. Sackett. 1917-1918, Vol. I. Book availability: Google Books and reprint at Amazon and WorldCat Libraries.
Cooper Industries: 1833-1983 by David Keller, 1983. Includes 8 pages on the history of Wiss. The book is available for a penny plus shipping at Amazon.com. The cover image.

This is NJ, a weekly radio series by the State Conservation and Economic Development in cooperation with the NJ Manufacturers Association, broadcast "A Story of Scissors and Shears" in 1948. This MP3 file (Length: 15:02) was made from two 78-rpm records (three sides).

J. Wiss Patents. I was able to find 30 patents when I searched for patents assigned to "Wiss Sons."
Pinking Shear Patents. Pinking shears were made in conjunction with Samuel Briskman's Pinking Shears Corporation. They filed for many patents over the years.
Roller Shear Patent. This was a shears patented by the Bell System and made by Wiss. It was used to cut and then press down telegram strips onto blank forms. See pictures of a pair.

Various internal documents: stockholders' meeting minutes from 1900, memos to and from the sales manager, and a system survey undertaken by an outside CPA firm.

The Cutlery Story, From Stone Age to Steel Age by Lewis D. Bement [born 1909, president of Russell-Harrington Cutlery Co.], published by The Associated Cutlery Industries of America, Deerfield, MA 1950. 36 pages. 6" x 9".

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