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MARBLE'S company Christmas cards went to all employees, dealers and distributors. Variations are many; survivors are few.
(Jim Tieman)
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Call me old fashioned, but there's something trashy about Santa Claus in October handing out Halloween candy at the mall. MARBLE'S founder, Webster Marble, would have felt the same way.
During his 35 years (1893-1928) as company President, W.L. never exploited Christmas as a merchandising tool. He didn't need to. Sportsmen everywhere already knew that anything with a MARBLE'S trademark made a perfect gift.
Over the years I've encountered some outstanding examples.
In a previous column, The Bad Boy Scout, I featured a unique 7 inch presentation engraved and dated Ideal knife given to Scout M.J. Winters, Junior. I don't know that it was a Christmas present, but it certainly was a wonderful gift.
Carving set with MARBLE'S knife was a Christmas gift to Irene McKenny Smith, Kansas City, Missouri, circa 1940. (Clint Dunathan)
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Years ago, at a Lake of the Ozarks Gun Show, I bought a carving set containing a fork, sharpening steel and Ideal knife with rhinestones imbedded in the handle. With the dealer's help, I tracked down the original owner's daughter who told me this story.
The year my mother shot her first deer, my father gave her a hunting knife for Christmas. He put jewels in the handle; then he put the knife in a carving set.
He loved to carve with it, especially when we had company for dinner and then my mother would have to tell about shooting her deer.
My dad never got tired of hearing the story.
I did. Think about it; my own mother shot Bambi; how gross.
From the late '30s to the early '50s, MARBLE'S offered dealers Christmas boxes for many popular products. Most boxes had a factory bottom stamp. (Clint Dunathan)
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While Webster could afford to assume the gift potential of his products was obvious, his successor, son William, had no such luxury. Confronted by the Great Depression, W.L. Junior needed to give his father's famous trademark a swift kick in the pants.
After 1928, new product promotions came quickly, including more colorful catalogs, new incentives for dealers, and the first products specifically designed for gift giving.
Two piece Christmas gift set was hinged on the long edge. Earlier box (not shown) was green and hinged on the short edge. (Clint Dunathan)
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The earliest "gift set" was a compass and a match box in a newly designed flip lid box. Within a year, a three piece set (knife, compass and match box) hit the market. Though packaging designs changed over the years, the clever sets were year-round sellers for the next 34 years.
Three piece gift set box designs changed at least five times over 34 years. The red box was the only one specifically designed for Christmas giving. (Rocky Mattingly)
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Their appeal was best described in advertising William wrote.
No other gift you can make will bring greater delight, be more useful or last longer. None can convey more thoughtfulness or strike a more responsive chord in the one who receives it.
MARBLE'S products still make perfect sporting gifts. But the packaging is up to you.
One, two, or a bunch, MARBLE'S sporting axes, hunting knives and pocket knives make any Christmas special.
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And don't count on Santa to help you out. I saw him in the grocery store this morning handing out Christmas pizza bites.
© 2006 Arni Dunathan
Arni Dunathan is the author of the newly published collector's guide "The Encyclopedia of MARBLE'S Knives and Sporting Collectables." |
