The Williams Manufacturing Company (Massachusetts) stock certificate circa 1867

Beautiful certificate with multiple vignettes - baskets from the company at the center and Lady Liberty with a flag seated on a monument pedestal at the upper left. Unissued and not cancelled. Dated 18__ but circa 1867 from incorporation.

The Williams Manufacturing Company was incorporated in Northampton Massachusetts. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, Williams Mfg. Co. was the largest basket manufacturer in the world. At the time the present catalog was issued, company produced baskets for produce and fruit dealers, manufacturers, butchers, grocers, bakers, meat packers, coal dealers, florists, farmers, and families.

L. B. Williams began the business in Huntington, Massachusetts in the mid-19th century with Roland S. Bartlett. The business moved to Northampton in 1862 and the name of the firm was changed to L. B. Williams & Co. In 1867 the concern was incorporated under the name of the William Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $100,000. At the time, the company had the largest basket factory in the world - operated by a seventy-five horse power steam engine, and with the capacity to produce ten thousand baskets per day.

The company used lumber from its own property behind the plant and purchased additional inventory locally, using oak, birch, beech, ash, maple, hickory and elm. The wood was cut into pieces and soaked a few hours in a steam vat, to make it pliable, after which it was split into pieces of varying thickness, as desired, by machinery. It was then woven in a flat state, like a mat, and was delivered to the finisher. The finisher then bent it over the wooden mold or pattern, forcing it into the required shape.