I just won this at auction. Plan on putting it in with a presentation and cased 32 tip-up 2nd issue.
Can anyone date these picture boxes?
Not much info out there.
Mine is photo 1
Photo 2 is the long
Photo 3 is what they look like when installed in a case. I think they really look good cased!
Good score, I seen the box but decided not to bid, the eBay international Astronomical postage costs scare me off.
I think the 2 "dog" round corner .32s are from late 1860s or early 1870s.
I believe the square corner is later maybe 1870s or ever early 1880s. Hopefully someone can narrow I'd down further.
The rounded corner UMC box with plaid paper wrapper made it
at least into the 1900's and was fazed out around 1920. The
UMC Dog head through fence logo is much older. I'm not an
expert but that logo was replaced long before 1900. Some-
where around 1890 or earlier.
I'm definitely not a big ammo collector.
My recollection is that UMC started up in 1867.
I believe the dog was on the left, then moved to the right, possibly I have that wrong, not sure, then as above the dog was removed sometime in 1880s/1890s. Then around 1910 Remington was added to the box.
I’ve been doing some difficult research and it looks like the dog head through the fence trademark was for a very short period.
The earliest boxes lack a trade mark and are square as seen in photo 1. Having only the 1874 patent. 1870’s
Photo 2 is the second box late 1870’s
Photo 3 is the dog head logo box Late 1870’s-early 1880’s
Photo 4 is the early plain label with oval trade mark. Mid/late 1880’s
Photo 5 is the late 1880’s through early 1900’s with the double oval trademark. These are the most common late boxes with the exception of the post 1910 having the addition of Remington on the label.
Box 1 & 2 being 38 centre fire with a single action on the box have to be after 1876/1877 with the introduction of the 38 single action.
I always believed the box corners went from round to square.
Photos 1-4 show the earliest boxes with square corners and depict Smith & Wesson Rimfire patent of the early 1860’s. You can see the transition to the round corner box in the very late 1870’s.