Fox Collectors

One of these Fox Products reprints of the 1912 "Campfire" catalogue that they use to send to people when they inquired about the shotguns they use to make just sold on ebay for $2.74 less then the last real 1912 "Campfire" catalogue went for on ebay!!

"R",

Wasn't this a reprint done in the 1960's??? Man alive, the FOX paper trail is getting insane!!!!----TOOL

I know they were sending them out in the 1960s. When they first started out sending them to people I don't know. Always has seemed rather strange to me that they used that last "Campfire" of Ansley's to reproduce rather then one of their big "Fox Gets the Game" catalogues?!? They may have still sent them out in the 1970s as they were in business until around 1980. I just noticed that there are two versions. One is double sheets folded and stapled at the spine (the original "Campfires) are fastened with a cord) and the other version is single sheets stapled and the spine covered with cloth tape.

Keystone Cable was in the old factory at North 18th and Windrim when I drove up there and took pictures in 1986. Stenton Park across North 18th Street was littered with those little tiny ziplock bags! Hmmmm....

Reseracher,

Can you tell us a little more about this "Fox Products" company? First I ever heard of it. Thanks in advance.

By the time WW-I was over with the Godshalks were manufacturing all manner of automobile accessories, fishing reels, golf equipment, etc. By the time the Godshalks sold off the A.H. Fox Gun Co. to Savage in 1929, my hunch is the gun business was an insignificant part of or possibly even a drain to their cash flow. They continued to operate as the Fox Co. still making fishing reels, toy guns, and other light industrial items. My early fishing reels are marked A.H. Fox Gun Co. Phila., PA., U.S.A. but my later ones are just marked Fox Co., Phila., PA., U.S.A., as is a fishing reel catalogue I have from that period. Ocean City bought the Fox reel business in November 1932, and for a few years marketted the Fox reels as a seperate line. The label on a post A.H. Fox Gun Co. toy gun I have says Fox Manufacturing Co, Phila., PA. Beginning in the early 1920s, the Godshalk's ads for their automotive accessories, fancy steering wheels with locks, wheel locks and horn buttons for Fords, say Fox Automotive Products Corp. From 1921 on in the Philadelphia City Directories both the A.H. Fox Gun Co. and the Fox Automotive Products Corp. are listed at 4680 N. 18th Street, and C.A. Godshalk is president of both. By the 1929 edition the address becomes 4720 N. 18th Street. I don't know exactly when they became Fox Products Co. I'm sure a review of the Philadelphia City directories could tell us that. When I was doing my research at the Library of Congress, I only reviewed one city directory after they sold the gun business, and that was a 1935. It still listed Fox Automotive Products Corp. at 4720 N. 18th Street, with Clarance Godshalk as president. The message on the inside of the cover of these reprinted 1912 catalogues says "We continue as the Fox Products Company of Philadelphia making battery chargers, testers, valves and other products, still the finest in the world. J.B. Godshalk, President"

McIntosh said they remained in business until 1980.

Thank you! I was missing the transition from Fox Automotive to Fox Products, still under the Godshalks. And I guess I just hadn't questioned what they were doing beyond the 1950's.

Fox Automotive Products Corp. should not be confused with the Fox Motor Co. (first listed in the city directory for 1918) where Ansley was building big powerful air-cooled automobiles in 1922 and 23.