PUBLISHER: Syndicate Trading Company, New York, 1880s?-1890s?
ABOUT: "In 1895, Bangs & Co. [a book auction house] announced it wold hold yearly sales of unashamedly dead inventory, and most of the large [publishing] houses appeared glad of the opportunity, but the venerable auction house itself went in bankruptcy in 1903. Disposing of inventories was still a problem, but it gradually became the business of the Syndicate Trading Co. and other cheap book specialists." (Tebbel II:106). "On the eve of the First World War the disposal of "remainders" had been taken over by the Syndicate Trading Company and other specialists in cheap books." (Sheehan 158; attributed to Frederick Stokes).
Cory Sternick on his Thomas Hughes page offers perhaps somewhat contradictory information. He images the first two bindings show below as from the Gladstone Series (as they are) and writes "This is another company that was not a book publisher but rather was a consortium of dry goods merchants. It was founded in 1881. The "syndicate" was started so that smaller dry-goods merchants could pool their purchase power to get better pricing." An 1889 inscription in a Tom Brown title then dates that book between 1881 and 1889. The first of the two books here also carries an inscription dated 1889, the second a signature dated 1884. The second moire has an 1895 inscription, the third 1898, and the copy final row left 1890.
This company was headquartered at 120 Franklin Street corner West Broadway in 1891. It also had offices in Manchester, England; Paris, France; Chemnitz, Germany; and St. Gall, Switzerland. It's president was A. Swan Brown. (Grateful thanks to Derek Jones for sharing a dated letter with this information in its letterhead).
LUCILE’s ISSUED BY Syndicate Trading Company:
Last revised: 26 November 2021