^Lot 905 Spiegel, May, Stern Company, Inc.

DE. 1920-30. Specimen. 100 shs. green. 2 allegorical women flank logo of company. The company was founded in 1865 by Joseph Spiegel, the son of a German rabbi. After spending the final few months of the Civil War in a Confederate prison camp, Spiegel settled in Chicago, where his brother-in-law, Henry Liebenstein, ran a successful furniture business. With Liebenstein's assistance, Spiegel opened J. Spiegel and Company. a small home furnishings retail operation located on Wabash Avenue in Chicago's loop. This business was destroyed in the 1871 Chicago fire. Spiegel issued its first catalogs in 1888. A 1903 merger with another furniture company created Spiegel, May, Stern & Co. In 1905, Joseph and his son Arthur Spiegel started a large-scale mail-order business; mail-order sales for 1906 totaled about $1 million. By 1910, the company employed about 300 people at its offices on West 35th Street. In 1912, the company began to sell women's clothing. Famous mail order catalog company. Central BNC. XF.