Archive Relating to the Design, Sale, and Maintenance of an Ice Cream Truck
Autocar Sales and Service Co. Newark, NJ, 1912. Very Good. Item #49077
Newark, NJ: Autocar Sales and Service Co., 1912. Archive relating to the design, sale, and maintenance of an ice cream truck for the New York Ice Cream Co. Contents include a blueprint of the design (25.5x49cm); seven pieces of signed typescript correspondence from the Newark manager of the company dated October and November 1912, six typescript receipts on company letterhead dated December 1912 to May 1913; and a two-page Commercial Chassis Order Contract accomplished in typescript and manuscript signed by a representative of the New York Ice Cream Co. Some light toning and old folds, else Very Good, in excellent, legible condition.
Technical but still revelatory archive relating to a very early ice cream truck, preceding the launch of Good Humor by eight years. The truck was designed in beet red and gold with black striping, "New York Ice Cream Company" printed on the side with a Neapolitan Brick design on the belt panel. The total cost of the vehicle set the New York Ice Cream Company back $2375. What is lacking--and what would make Good Humor the lead in the field--are any bells or a gramophone announcing the arrival of the truck to the neighborhood.
Further Reading: Daniel Tannehill Neely's "Soft Serve: Charting the Aural Promise of Ice Cream Truck Music."
Price: $350.00