Brooks Brothers, Inc. - circa 1930's Famous Clothing Co. Specimen Stock Certificate
Inv# SE3838 Specimen Stock
Specimen Stock printed by Security Bank Note Co. Philadelphia. Brooks Brothers is an American high-end luxury fashion company founded in 1818, the oldest apparel brand in continuous operation in the United States. Originally a family business, Brooks Brothers produces clothing for men, women and children, as well as home furnishings. Brooks Brothers licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear, Paris-based Interparfums for fragrances, and Turkey-based Turko Textiles for its home collection. As a result of store closures and poor online sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2020. In September 2020 Brooks Brothers was purchased by a joint venture between Authentic Brands Group and Simon Property Group.
On April 7, 1818, at the age of 45, Henry Sands Brooks opened H. & D. H. Brooks & Co. on the northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry streets in Manhattan. He proclaimed that his guiding principle was, "To make and deal only in merchandise of the finest body, to sell it at a fair profit, and to deal with people who seek and appreciate such merchandise." In 1833, his four sons, Elisha, Daniel, Edward, and John, inherited the family business and in 1850 renamed the company "Brooks Brothers." The Golden Fleece symbol was adopted as the company's trademark in 1850. A wooly sheep suspended in a ribbon had long been a symbol of British woolen merchants. Dating from the fifteenth century, the image had been the emblem of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, founded by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. The first Brooks clothier store, at Catharine Street in Manhattan, 1845 In its early history, Brooks Brothers was known for introducing the ready-to-wear suit to American customers. In the mid-nineteenth century, Brooks Brothers outfitted United States President Abraham Lincoln and considered him a loyal customer. At his second inauguration, Lincoln wore a coat specially crafted for him by Brooks Brothers. Hand-stitched into the coat's lining was a design featuring an eagle and the inscription, "One Country, One Destiny". He was wearing the coat and a Brooks Brothers suit when he was assassinated. As a supplier of soldiers' uniforms during the Civil War, Brooks Brothers became a target of outrage for its allegedly shoddy production. With a contract from New York State to supply uniforms for the New York Volunteers, Brooks Brothers took shredded and sometimes decaying rags, glued them together and stitched them into uniforms. They would fall apart in the rain and were the subject of ridicule from other regiments. According to James Murray (primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death in 1915) Brook Brothers were allegedly responsible for bringing "shoddy" into American usage. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers
Stock and Bond Specimens are made and usually retained by a printer as a record of the contract with a client, generally with manuscript contract notes such as the quantity printed. Specimens are sometimes produced for use by the printing company's sales team as examples of the firm’s products. These are usually marked "Specimen" and have no serial numbers.
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