Does anyone recognize this mark?

[reeltackle]

Ran across this reel on e-bay today. It is missing half of the foot but the remaining half has an interesting marking. Does anyone recognize it?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/123739968723?_ ... noapp=true

[Steve]

That's a relisting. The mark is stylistically like the Empire City logo, but a direct comparison suggests it's something else. Interesting reel.

[David Lehmann]

It is the Empire City logo. Compare with the 1897 A&I Empire City ad. This reel was sold by A&I as the model 1927N. See catalog cut below. The foot on the early Empire City reels (sort of a "reverse Kopf") is distinctive. A similar foot was used earlier by August Hendrick and the Mascot Reel Company. Empire City may have been a separate company prior to acquisition by A&I. A&I then used "Empire City" to describe their bargain brand tackle--sort of. Early Empire City rods were fairly high end. Later Empire City reels were made for A&I by Montague. The early ones are distinctive and different than the unquestionably Montague manufactured reels. There is a cool history yet to be fully described for these reels!

[Steve]

Yikes! It's the Jaleoxe of logos.

[reelsmith.]

Yikes! It's the Jaleoxe of logos.

Yo !

Steve !

Its Jalelou.

Spellcheck is your friend.

Dean.

[Steve]

Thanques, Dayvid. Aye konvinsed meyeself ewer write. Thanque yew two, Deene.

[Alan Baracco]

Learned Folks,

At great risk of being wrong, I agree with Steve that the eBay logo is different from the Empire City logo in the A&I 1897 ad. Steve's side by side left image is right side up, the right side one is rotated 90 degrees.

Also at risk of being wrong (and maybe it is a small point), although the Empire City logo in the A&I is marked "Trade Mark" I can find no evidence it was a USPTO Registered one. If it was registered, I would love to add it to Colby & my database.

Alan

[David Lehmann]

Alan,
Not that can't I be wrong (happens more than I care to admit!), but I'm pretty certain that the reel is Empire City and matches one of the limited number of early Empire City reels sold by A&I during the early part of the 20th century. And, per my earlier post, the early Empire City reel foot is distinctive--as much so as the early Hendryx foot.

Regarding your second point, I also couldn't find when or where the trademark was registered. It may not have been for anything fishing or it may never have been really registered. When A&I first started selling Empire City merchandise, their ads indicated that they were a vendor for the brand. Empire City's first foray into fishing equipment seems to have been with fishing line in the 1880s. It is possible that the trademark, if it ever was registered in the US, was for non-fishing related string or textiles (but I couldn't find evidence of that either). By the late 1890's, A&I claimed to own the brand and factory. (I have a short ms coming out sometime in The Reel News about EC.)

[Steve]

Here's what you can do with 10 hours in the darkroom...or 2 minutes with Photoshop. It certainly makes the solder look nicer.

[Alan Baracco]

David & All,

Sure looks right. As to whether or not Empire registered it is an open question (A&I did not). I'll do some other searches, but there are a number of possibilities, applied for and rejected, not pursued, or just used without registering. The last is not uncommon, Colby and I have chased "trademarks" many times that were not actually valid. The one that will bug me to my grave is the Julius vom Hofe Shamrock "trademark", can not find it as a valid US trademark, maybe registered in NY only??

Steve likes Jaleoxe images, but how about this one? Any guesses?

Alan

[Alan Baracco]

Answer to quiz.