The cement gray stone was about 3″ thick and reminded me of a cornerstone without the sharp bend. I knew this was no cornerstone because it had images inscribed on both sides.
The stone seemed to weigh a ton, so I handled it carefully so that it would not slip from my hands as I lifted it from the auction table. I didn’t want it to fall and break – as if that was possible since it was so thick – or smash my feet and toes.
One side of the stone held images of two blank checks – one for Redmond & Co., Philadelphia, and the other bearing the names of Dennisville Loan and Building Association (NJ) and First National Bank of Cape May Courthouse, NJ. The other side showed buildings, several of whose images were reversed.
One building was Citizens’ National Bank of Frederick, MD, whose inscription also read “Return if not called for in five days to” (the bank) – could this have been affixed to letterhead stationery? Another was Montgomery County, Maryland, which I assumed was the county courthouse, and the other showed a company whose name was emblazoned on the building: Cochran, Payne & McCormick. I later learned that it had been a banking firm in Williamsport, PA.
What was this stone, I wondered. I had not seen one like it before at auction so I was obviously curious. I waited around for it to be auctioned, hoping that the auctioneer might have some idea of what it was. He didn’t, selling it as a “First National Bank stamp block,” whatever that meant. The stone didn’t attract many bidders; it sold for $10.
Googling later, I found that this was a lithographic stone that had apparently been used to make blank checks and other paper products for banks and companies. I’m not sure how the images on the opposite side were used, unless they were logos on checks or other documents for those particular entities.
The process is called stone lithography, and it was invented in the late 18th century by a German actor and author named Alois Senefelder who wanted an inexpensive way to print his own plays. By the 1830s lithography was very popular.
Simply put, in lithography, an image is drawn or painted on stone (which can be used over and over again by removing the previous image) with an oil-based medium, such as a wax crayon, paint or pencil. Water is placed on the stone, and the non-greasy parts absorb the water and the greasy parts do not. Oil-based ink is put on the stone, and this time the greasy part absorbs the ink. Paper is then pressed on the stone, and the image is captured on the paper. Multiple copies are made on a printing press.
In France, artists such as Francisco de Goya, Eugene Delacroix and Honore Daumier were among the first to create lithographic prints. In this country, Currier & Ives produced thousands of reasonably priced lithographic prints on all kinds of subjects. The images were printed in black and white, and hand colored by female workers in an assembly line. Color lithography would come later in the 19th century.
Today, the process is still undertaken much the same way by artists who create lithographs of their works for a mass audience – either with stone or aluminum plates. I found several examples of early lithography stones on the web that included a map of Detroit, a nursing school diploma and more.
One side of the auction stone bore a number that was barely distinguishable. It was likely a control number that identified the stone and its image in an album. That’s how it was used at one lithography company in Denver, which printed checks, deposit forms, stocks, bonds and stationery for banks during its heyday in the 1920s.
The images on the stone at auction held a lot of history. It was clear that stone lithography was still present in the 1920s. The year 192___ was printed on one of the blank checks. Redmond & Co. was a banking company based on Wall Street with offices in Philadelphia. It sold stocks and bonds of such companies as Pennsylvania Railroad, along with several others; Tampa Electric Co. and Ohio Gas & Electric.
The Cape May Courthouse bank was chartered in 1905 and was among those authorized by the federal government to issue bank notes. From 1863 to 1935, the government gave charters to large banks to print money, which was backed by bonds deposited by the banks into the U.S. Treasury.
The Citizens’ Bank of Frederick, MD, was also one of those national banks. The lithographic stones of these notes and other financials were subject to counterfeiting.
