In my wanderings through the Web I have found some interesting and curious things. I thought I’d share one here.
A long time ago this advertisement was discovered, for Moore Business Forms, from the late 1940s or the 1950s as a guess:
The above shows a typical York door, with what I call the “cam plate” boltwork. The location is not stated other than “one of Bank of America’s San Francisco branches” and I’ve never found the actual location.
Much later the following stock image was found on Alamy:
This one looks more like a photograph though it seems like a black-and-white one that has been colorized. The Moore ad is clearly based on this, and was cropped a bit as well.
Much later the following was found:
Nearly identical. Except this is a Mosler door, there’s no ramp (just a “drawbridge”), and other details differ. But the resemblance in composition is so striking, I think the same photographer was involved. Maybe he was hired to produce images for York, then Mosler? Or a set of stock images? I could believe these are even the same people, with a slight wardrobe change.
Curious! To me, at least.
Additionally, the hinges and finials are so similar, is it possible that York was subcontracting with Mosler to produce their doors, or at least hinges? Keeping a manufacturing facility operating had to be expensive, and subcontracting seems like a nice alternative if business drops off below a certain point.
