1912 logo decal logo 1960s logo J. Wiss & Sons Co., Newark, NJ: 1848-1976
Scans of Vintage Catalogs, Books, Ephemera, Mementos, Ads, etc.


search icon

Major Catalogs:
1901
1901 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1907
1907 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1911
1911 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1912
1912 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1917
1917 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1919
1919 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1922
1922 thumbnail

Razors
Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1925
1925 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
1929
1929 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
Garden
1930
1930 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
Garden
1934
1934 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
Garden
1937
1937 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
Garden
1941
1941 thumbnail


Shears

Pruners
1950
1950 thumbnail


Shears

Pruners
1963
1963 thumbnail


Shears
Tin Snips
Pruners
Garden
1969
1969 thumbnail


Shears
1975
1975 thumbnail


Shears

Pruners
Garden

Catalogs, Brochures, Product Inserts, Cut Sheets, Correspondence, etc. by Decade:
1860s  1870s  1880s  1890s  1900s  1910s  1920s  1930s  1940s  1950s  1960s  1970s

Anniversary Publication:
A Story Of Shears book cover 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. The book was commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company. 40 pages.
Advertising and Publicity:
directory page Newark Directories. Wiss Entries and Ads from 1848 to 1922.
newspaper clipping Advertisements and Articles in Newspapers. Starting in 1880 in local papers.
Newark Evening News masthead The Newark Evening News. Articles on Wiss Businesses 1915-1972.
vintage ad Magazine Advertisements 1896-1976. From various consumer (and some trade) magazines. Listed either all on one page, or split into seven categories.
Products:
razor Razors. Wiss made the highest quality straight razors until 1924. This section identifies and features pictures of razors, sets, and strops.
605 Pictures of 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.
pinkers thumbnail Pinking Shears. Lists all variants and has guides for identification.
Picnic pin Mementos and Ephemera. Includes 1876 Exposition pass, label pins, 1948 centennial items, a rose, glassware, tie clasps, letterpress blocks, etc. Includes packaging.
Certificate of guarantee Point-Of-Sale Marketing Items covers posters (with some showing the Stages of Manufacture), and felt for putting under shears. Includes the common TGIF sign TGIF Sign icon.
Display cabinet Display Cases and Cabinets. 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.
History and People:
timeline icon Timeline of the Wiss Family Businesses: 1848-1976. Includes the Shear Trust story.
Employees early 1870s Employee Groups and Employees at Work pictures.
Family in 1863 Family biographies, genealogy, photos and information.
Books with Wiss write-ups:
book thumbnail: Cooper Industries Cooper Industries: 1833-1983 by David Keller, 1984. Includes eight pages on the history of Wiss. At Amazon.com.
book thumbnail: Knowing Newark Knowing Newark: Selected Star-Ledger Columns by Charles F. Cummings by The Newark Public Library, 2016. Page 31 has an article on the Wiss Company. The publisher's page. Page at Amazon. Book in WorldCat Libraries.
book thumbnail: Early tools of New Jersey Early tools of New Jersey and the men who made them, by Alexander Farnham (1984) has a few pages on the Wiss company in the Cutlers chapter. (A few inaccuracies.) The book is in many WorldCat Libraries and at Amazon.
Real Estate and Other Businesses:
In 1887, when the factory was opened and retail stayed downtown, a third division was established: Wiss Realty Corporation, a real estate holding company.

Wiss storefront The Wiss Store always had a full line of cutlery, and added over the years: silver, optical, jewelry and a gift shop. In 1887, when the factory moved, the retail stayed downtown. In 1911 the store was one of the first tenants in the office building.
factory The Factory was opened on Littleton Avenue in 1887. There are pictures from the beginning through its being torn down in 2013. The site has become a PSE&G switching station.
Wiss Building The Wiss Office Building was built on Broad Street in 1910. This was Newark's first skyscraper north of the Morris Canal. The building was sold in 1956. There are pictures of the building through the years and pictures of it being torn down in 2013.
Heinisch logo R. Heinisch Sons' Works was bought by Wiss in 1914, making Wiss the largest manufacturer of quality scissors in the world.
Tree Brand logo Boker Tree Brand Knives, adjacent to Wiss in Maplewood, was purchased by Wiss in March 1970. Production was kept separate, and the products were co-branded. Many commemorative knives were issued.
Maplewood properties Property in Maplewood, NJ was bought by Wiss. In 1958 the Kroyden plant was bought and used for manufacturing. In 1962 the adjoining property was bought and a warehouse was built on it.
Audio Material:
This is NJ 78 spm record label This is New Jersey, 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. The broadcast was 15 minutes long. Survives is an Audio and Transcript: A Story of Scissors and Shears.
Patents:
Wiss patent thumbnail J. Wiss Patents.
I found 31 patents when I searched for patents assigned to "Wiss Sons."
Pinking shears patent thumbnail Pinking Shear Patents.
Pinking shears were made in conjunction with Samuel Briskman's Pinking Shears Corporation. They filed for many patents over the years. See page on Samuel Briskman.
Roller shears patent thumbnail 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.
Internal Documents:
Sources:


Go to Don Wiss's Home Page
Send questions, comments and new material to
Site Map