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The pre-1920 Heddon lure and box Collection of Michael Echols |
Heddon New "Dowagiac" wood box markings |
Knowledge for Advanced Collectors of Heddon
Heddon's NEW "DOWAGIAC MINNOW" wood box markings
Two way NEW "DOWAGIAC MINNOW" wood box
Markings on the end of the two way wood box
Shown above is a three belly weight 100 in Fancyback 'green crackleback' with the two way NEW DOWAGIAC MINNOW wood box. Many of these early wood boxes were not marked, this one is marked correctly for this lure.
This is the correct type of marking on the end of a two way slide New Dowagiac wood box. One way sliders usually were not marked, but when they were they had simply 100 or 150 on the end - that's it, no mention of Dowagiac Minnow...
The two way slide tops are the first to mention color, but Heddon had not yet devised the color code number system that we find in the 'Hung!' box and later boxes. Heddon would simply put Dowagiac MINNOW with emphasis on MINNOW and either 100, 150, 175 or 300 with the color being spelled out in between the MINNOW and the 'No.' lines.
The two way slide boxes held the very first 300 and 175 lures and are much rarer than the one way sliders. Again, like the one way slide boxes - two way slide New Dowagiac boxes are rarely found marked on the ends."
