1920 receipt from Magee Furnace Company of Boston

This 1920 receipt was issued by Magee Furnace Company ("Manufacturers of Highest Grade Heating and Cooking Apparatus") of Boston, Massachusetts, to Harry D. Bunker of North Conway, New Hampshire.

Bunker's $4.40 bill would be the equivalent of about $50 today — certainly not chump change!

It appears that Bunker bought some repair parts or accessories for a stove.¹

Here's a closer look...



There's a #88 Essex fire box end, a short center, a 12-pound oven front, a short bar and some bolts. The items were packed in a 60-cent barrel.

It also appears that "Express 1.12" has been written on the receipt in pencil.

Here's a little bit about Magee Furnace, excerpted from 2007's "Goods for Sale: Products And Advertising in the Massachusetts Industrial Age" by Chaim M. Rosenberg:

"The Magee Furnace Company, founded in 1864 in Boston, grew to become one of the largest stove and furnace makers in the country. A huge Magee manufacturing plant was built on Marginal Street in Chelsea with the rear of the building facing the harbor. Ships came in to unload iron for the factory and took on board the completed ranges and furnaces. ... [In the 1920s], the Magee Furnace Company teamed up with the Edison Company to use a combination of coal and electric power to heat a kitchen range. ... [C]oal and wood were fast being replaced by electricity and gas. Magee, however, ... did not successfully make this transition."

Compared to the 1907 receipt for L.B. Hantz that was featured here in 2011, this is more of a no-frills receipt, with no illustrations of any of the Boston company's products.

Footnote
1. Harry D. Bunker & Son Inc. is still listed as a licensed plumbing contractor in North Conway, New Hampshire, according to a Google search. But it's not clear whether that business is still active.