Tappan Co. - Specimen Stock Certificate

Specimen Stock printed by Security-Columbian Banknote Company. Tappan is a brand of appliances named after its founder, W. J. Tappan. The company was established in 1881 in Bellaire, Ohio, originally as the Ohio Valley Foundry Company, focusing on the door-to-door sale of cast-iron stoves. In 1889, the business moved to Mansfield, Ohio, and was renamed the Eclipse Stove Company, inspired by Tappan's father, an amateur astronomer, who suggested the name after his trip to Siberia to observe a comet. However, due to the existence of another unrelated Eclipse Stove Company, the name was changed to the Tappan Stove Company in the 1920s. In 1950, Tappan acquired the O'Keefe & Merritt Stove Company based in Los Angeles, continuing to use that name in the western United States until the late 1980s. In 1978, Carl Icahn made his first attempt to take over Tappan, resulting in the company's sale to Electrolux.

The following year, AB Electrolux, which had previously acquired Eureka, purchased the Tappan Stove Company. Seven years later, Electrolux acquired White Consolidated Industries, which produced Frigidaire, White-Westinghouse, Gibson Appliance, and Kelvinator products, merging Tappan with these brands to form the WCI Major Appliances Group. In 1991, this group was rebranded as the Frigidaire Company, headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. By 1997, Electrolux's North American division was reorganized as Electrolux Home Products of North America, consolidating American Yard Products, Frigidaire, and Poulan/Weedeater.