CASKET CATALOGUE E - POWERS & WALKER CASKET COMPANY, Grand Rapids, Michigan. "Manufacturers of a high grade line of Caskets and Burial Dry Goods..."

GRAND RAPIDS: Powers & Walker Casket Company, c.1900.

Flexible covers, black pebbled-faux-leather covered boards, yapped edges, titles in gilt on the spine covering, original owner's name "F. J. Conklin" in gilt on the front cover, gilt page edges, 8x12 inches, 404 pages.

ILLUSTRATED with 180 FULL-PAGE (9x12 inch) PHOTOGRAPHS of CASKETS. Each photograph is accompanied with a full description on its facing page, (a small number on the same page).

CONDITION: The cover's yapped edges have chips and tears, the spine covering is chipped away for 1 inch at the top and 1/2 inch at the bottom, the spine and yap folds have some scrapes; nonetheless the covers are doing their job. Internally, the blank front endpaper has a chip to its top edge, otherwise all the pages and all the images are in great condition, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

I've never seen such an array of early American caskets. How will I ever choose?

About The Powers-Walker Casket Company (from Grand Rapids historical sites):

******The Powers-Walker Casket Company began operations in 1875 and continued, in spite of a couple of major fires, until the early 1900s. The Company produced a variety of caskets in many distinctive styles. In 1912 operations were suspended due to a major fire; in 1914 the Company's wooden structure was dismantled for construction of the Michigan Railway Kalamazoo bridge. The Company tried to resurrect itself in a brick building, but soon ceased operations altogether.******