312: INDEPENDENT STOVE ADVERTISING PAPERWEIGHT ELEPHANT

Cast iron elephant with 'Renown Underfeed Stoves' on one side, 'Independent Stove Co., Owosso, Mich' to the other side.
Background from shiawasseehistory.com/stove.html: 'The Independent Stove Company traces its beginnings to 1905. At this time, three workers at the Michigan Stove Company of Detroit decided to start their own business. William Robinson, president, Robert Wadell, vice-president, and J. Edwin Ellis, secretary and treasurer, founded the Independent Stove Company on May 18, 1906. They remained in Detroit on Brush Street until 1908, manufacturing cast iron cooking ranges and heaters.
Three years after their founding, the management of the Independent Stove Company decided to move to Owosso. The city offered them approximately three acres of land along the Michigan Central Railroad tracks in return for spending $250,000 in payroll over a five year period.
The line of stoves was gradually expanded to include steel ranges, furnaces, oak heaters, and an underfeed heater which generated less smoke than the earlier models in which fuel was added from the top. At first the steel ranges were primarily made from iron castings with steel parts used as decoration. Gradually, as advances were made in design, steel was used in some of the functional parts which were not exposed to the heat generated in the firebox. Later porcelain enamel was used as an exterior coating. At first the enamel was applied by other manufacturers, but in 1930 a porcelain enamel department with all the necessary equipment was installed in Owosso.'
Measures 2 inches.
Good condition, as shown.
$40 - $60