Mann, Summers & Co.

Messrs, Mann, Summers & Co., Wholesale and Mercantile Stationers, 1 and 3, South Hanover Street.—

    This is one of the most important houses in its line in Glasgow. Established as mercantile and export stationers in 1878 at Buchanan Street, they removed in the following year to the very extensive and convenient premises at 3, 5 and 7, West Regent Street, from which, owing to continued increase in their business, they have recently moved into more extensive and central headquarters in South Hanover Street, where they give constant employment to over sixty persons. The sole partners are Mr. John Mann and Mr. James Summers.

    They do a large trade, both home and foreign, in mercantile stationery of all descriptions. Their three principal departments are first, the supplying of the better classes of wrapping papers to warehousemen, manufacturers, Turkey red and other dyers, calico printers, &c., &c. ; second, the furnishing of shop papers and bags for grocers, drapers, bakers, &c. ; and thirdly, counting-house stationery, account books, &c., &c. These they stock in every variety and at the most moderate prices, and in every branch they do a widespread, valuable, and steadily increasing trade. Among their sundry lines almanacks and fancy tea-boxes are the leading features, and are widely known at home and abroad for their superiority and artistic finish. A large export trade is done in the almanacks, which are sent to all the colonies, particularly the Cape.

    The supply of the fancy tea-boxes is a subject which they have made distinctly their own. The stock sizes are boxes to hold five, ten, or twenty pounds respectively. All are substantially made of thoroughly seasoned inodorous wood, and are lined inside either with tinfoil paper or with pure tea-lead. They have tight-fitting sliding lids and are completely air-tight. The exterior is covered with coloured designs of a pseudo Chinese or Indian character. Some of those exhibited are of excellent execution and portray scenes, in the process of tea-growing and manufacture in the quaint manner so familiar to us. Other designs are purely of a conventional nature while others exhibit close study of plant and winged life in particularly agreeable forms.

    Another speciality of Messrs. Mann & Summers’ trade is the pictorial almanacks that now greet one on every hand. They have no less than a hundred different designs in stock, which are so arranged that the name, trade, and other information as to the purchaser, can be so thoroughly incorporated with the design, that it appears as one complete whole, specially arranged for the person whose business or whose wares it is destined to advertise.  A large trade is done in the supply of plain, illustrated, or coloured price-lists for grocers and other trades. The supply of wrapping papers and bags, and their preparation in the forms required by various firms have received much attention.

    In all their work Messrs. Mann & Summers are characterised by its thoroughness, by the novelty and versatility of the ideas displayed, and the highly artistic method in which they are carried out.

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