1894 Henry L. Pierce NYC ALS Letterhead to S.R. Buford MT Rejected Chocolate Buy For Sale

Scarce. Showing barely any signs of age, wear and handling. Expected fold creases from posting. No major issues to note. Eye-catching illustrated building vignette, mixed header typefaces / fonts and clean bold legible writing. Overall, in good to very good condition. Will display well in your collection. You will receive the exact sheet shown in the photos. It measures approx. 8 3/8\" x 10 3/4\"

1894 Henry L. Pierce Letter — S. R. Buford & Co., Virginia CityThis is a January 12, 1894 letter from Henry L. Pierce, operating at the Pierce Building, 105 & 107 Hudson Street, New York, and identified on the letterhead as a branch of W. Baker & Co. of Boston. It is addressed to S. R. Buford & Co., Virginia City, Montana, and concerns Buford\'s proposed purchase of chocolate.TranscriptionHenry L. Pierce105 & 107 Hudson Street(Pierce Building)Branch of W. Baker & Co. BostonNew York, January 12th, 1894Messrs. S. R. Buford & Co.Virginia City — MontanaGentlemenYour esteemed favor of the 4thaddressed my House in Dorchester, Mass. wasreceived at this Office today.You can do better to purchase from J. B. InderriedenCo. of Chicago than from us direct — unless youcan use at least one thousand dollars worthof our goods in an invoice. The J. B. InderriedenCo. handle our goods in a large way, & sellvery many of the best Wholesale Houses of theNorthwest. I therefore do not fill your order forten boxes of Chocolate.With respect I amYours very trulyHenry L. Pierceper Frank S. HallWhat the Letter ConcernsBuford & Co. had apparently attempted to order ten boxes of chocolate directly from the manufacturer. Rather unusually, Pierce declines the order—not because the goods were unavailable, but because the order was too small for economical direct wholesale handling.Pierce explains that direct purchasing would make sense only if Buford could buy at least $1,000 worth of merchandise on a single invoice. Instead, he recommends purchasing through J. B. Inderrieden Co. of Chicago, which handled the firm\'s products “in a large way” and supplied many leading wholesale houses in the Northwest.That makes this a particularly useful document for understanding manufacturer–jobber–merchant distribution in the 1890s. The manufacturer preferred large-volume accounts; a regional wholesaler or jobber broke those quantities into smaller lots suitable for merchants such as Buford.Henry L. Pierce and Walter Baker & Co.The W. Baker & Co. named on the letterhead was the famous Massachusetts chocolate concern better known as Walter Baker & Company, whose roots reached back to chocolate manufacturing at Dorchester in the 18th century.Henry Lillie Pierce (1825–1896) was an important figure in the company\'s history. He was associated with the Baker chocolate business for decades and ultimately became its owner. Under Pierce, Walter Baker & Co. developed into one of America\'s best-known manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa. Pierce was also prominent in Massachusetts public life, serving as a member of Congress and as Mayor of Boston.The reference in this letter to “my House in Dorchester, Mass.” is therefore significant. Dorchester was the historic manufacturing home of the Baker chocolate works, while Pierce\'s New York establishment at 105 & 107 Hudson Street served the enormous New York commercial market. The handsome letterhead even includes an engraved illustration of the multi-story Pierce Building.J. B. Inderrieden Co.The Chicago firm recommended by Pierce was J. B. Inderrieden Co., a substantial wholesale grocery concern. Its position as an intermediary explains why it could economically supply Buford with quantities that were too small for Pierce\'s direct factory/branch trade.Pierce\'s statement that Inderrieden handled Baker goods “in a large way” is particularly useful contemporary evidence of the relationship. Rather than merely identifying a distributor, Pierce effectively tells the Montana merchant: this is the wholesaler through whom you can buy our chocolate more advantageously.S. R. Buford & Co.S. R. Buford & Co. was the Virginia City mercantile business associated with Samuel R. Buford, a prominent Montana merchant and businessman. A general mercantile house serving Virginia City and the surrounding region necessarily purchased an enormous variety of merchandise, but it could not always buy individual product lines in the quantities required for direct factory pricing.This letter shows exactly how that problem was solved. A Virginia City merchant wanted ten boxes of a nationally distributed chocolate product; the manufacturer considered the order too small for direct shipment and redirected the merchant to a large Chicago wholesale distributor capable of supplying smaller quantities.Historical SignificanceThe $1,000 minimum is perhaps the most revealing detail in the letter. In 1894 that represented a very substantial single order, demonstrating that Pierce\'s New York branch was geared toward major wholesale transactions rather than ordinary small-lot orders.It also makes the rejected ten-box chocolate order unusually informative. In a few sentences, the document lays out the hierarchy of late-19th-century grocery distribution:Manufacturer → major wholesale/jobbing house → regional merchant → consumer.And because the letter comes directly from Henry L. Pierce, one of the principal figures behind Walter Baker & Co.\'s rise as a nationally recognized chocolate manufacturer, it has considerably more historical interest than an ordinary order rejection.

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