Pflueger "contract" wood boxes
Gabby Talkington
Pflueger made lures for what were termed contract suppliers such as hardware stores or fishing tackle supply houses who put the Pflueger baits in their own paper labeled boxes. Finding what appears to be a Pflueger in a strange box is not all that unusual.
Here are eight contract boxes, wood and cardboard in which one would expect to find Pflueger minnows. In the wood boxes, you should expect to find a minnow with small cups and see-thru hardware hook hangers. The cardboard box would have a minnow with NeverFail hardware.
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Below are four different types of wood boxes with lures from that era.
- Top right, an early gem clip type hardware three hook underwater with small cups in a rare "metallic" silver-blue. I'm told by Dan Magers that the bubbling in the paint is typical of this color and is down under the lacquer coat. Note: the more blunt nose of the lure compared to the one above. The wood box was a generic contract box, again consistent with the gem clip era use of wood boxes for Monarchs. The Monarchs have a more triangular body and are much thicker than these baits.
- Top left, another contract box minnow: the "Marvelus Wooden Minnow" wood box contains a three hook c. 1910 Pflueger in Perch with gem clip hardware.
- Bottom left, an early gem clip type hardware, three hook underwater, with the small cups, in rainbow color. This hardware was similar to the Shakespeare gem clip design and was discontinued after a suit brought by Shakespeare for patent infringement. Apparently the Neverfail hardware was better anyway. The wood box is consistent with the gem clip era Monarch's. This particular wood box with paper label was from the Simmons Hardware Co. who called their Pflueger-made contract bait a "Ketch-em" wooden minnow.
Note: small gem clips and very small cups differentiate this bait from a Shakespeare on first look. The props and extensions look similar to the later Shakespeare smooth props too. It's very easy to confuse early Pflueger and Shakespeare due to similar gem clip hardware.
- Bottom right, is a five hook "Gold Seal" brand wood box with a Pflueger five hook Monach which has the later Neverfail hardware.
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Below, are a couple of contract boxes used to house a five hook Champion minnow. The Champion was a lower cost minnow with brass tack eyes and produced by Pflueger with gem clip hardware in the 1910 era.
Shown are the two maroon boxes each had one of these minnows in each of them. The boxes are marked for the Mizzoo Wood Minnow, Diamond MFG. Co, St. Louis, U.S.A., and One Triumph Wood Minnow, Triumph Manufacturing Company, Louisville, U.S.A.
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