The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

When you look at it, it's not that overwhelming.

Check 444 was written on 3/16/28; number 976 on 9/27/28. That's 532 checks over about 6-½ months, which works out to 82 a month. Jumping from the latter check 976 up to 1775, written on 8/8/29, it's 799 in just over 10 months, or about 80 a month. So the same pace.

Since Edison was known to be a workaholic, if you figure that Edison worked 6 days a week he might have signed 3 checks a day. Even if he signed checks only once a week, he would have had only about 20 to do.

I did at least that many back in the 80s when I ran a business with 30 or so employees.

soundgen wrote:

TinfoilPhono wrote:They are definitely real signatures, not stamped, and just as definitely written by Edison himself and not a secretary. That's just the way it was done. Even 30 years ago I often had to sign a few dozen checks in one sitting, and I was running a vastly smaller business.

So did Edison sign cheques for all his dozens of companies ?

http://edison.rutgers.edu/list.htm

You'd have to ask the Historic Site about that. The business checks that are in collector's hands are (AFAIK) all from the Botanic Research company, probably the result of a huge dumpster dive in the 1960s or 70s. As I noted, at one time these were sold by the hundred. There are some personal checks out there too, also many promissory notes that are "check-like".

As I heard the story, the Botanic Research checks were indeed salvaged from a dumpster, when Charles Edison's estate was being cleared out. Ditto for dozens of corporate minute books, which were broken up so that individual pages with Edison's (and several others) signatures could be sold. These were all dirt cheap then. As they got absorbed into the market the prices started climbing, and continue to do so.

This is the oldest check in my collection, written about a year before he adopted the characteristic umbrella paraph. I've only seen one other from the same series, though I presume there are more.

Why do some checks say "Botanic" and others say "Botonic"?

Nice pick up.. All these years and I've never notice this difference. I can't get any info on Botonic when I google it with the exception of the signed checks be offered.

blizz

marcapra wrote:Why do some checks say "Botanic" and others say "Botonic"?

I always assumed it was a typo.

A typo. But they used all of the pre-printed ones up anyway, then corrected it for the next batch of checks. The "Botonic" ones are all lower numbers.