RARE "Lipton Tea" Thomas Lipton Signed 3X5 Card COA for Sale

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RARE "Lipton Tea" Thomas Lipton Signed 3X5 Card COA For Sale

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RARE "Lipton Tea" Thomas Lipton Signed 3X5 Card COA:
$249.99

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Up for sale a *RARE! "Lipton Tea" Thomas Lipton Hand Signed 3X5 Card.This item is authenticated By ToddMueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.ES-2864

SirThomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet,KCVO(10May 1848– 2 October 1931) was aScotsmanof Ulster-Scots parentage who was aself-made man, as company founder ofLipton Tea, merchant,philanthropistand yachtsman who lost 5 straightAmerica's Cup matches. He engaged in extensive advertising for his chain ofgrocery stores and his brand ofLiptonteas. He boasted that his secret for success wasselling the best goods at the cheapest prices, harnessing the power ofadvertising, and always being optimistic. He was the most persistent challengerin the history of theAmerica's Cupyacht race. Lipton was born in a tenementin Crown Streetinthe Gorbals,Glasgow, on 10 May 1848. HisUlster-Scotsparents,Thomas Lipton senior and Frances Lipton (néeJohnstone), were fromthetownlandof either Shannock Green or Shankillk(Tonitybog), both nearRoslea, in the south-east corner ofCounty FermanaghinUlster, not far fromClonesinCounty Monaghan. His parents were married in St. Mark'sChurch of IrelandChurch inAghadrumsee, near Roslea. The Liptons had been smallholdersinCounty Fermanaghforgenerations but, by the late 1840s, Thomas Lipton's parents had been forced toleave Ireland due to theGreat Famine of 1845.Moving to Scotland in search of a better living for their young family, theLiptons had settled in Glasgow by 1847. Lipton's father had a number ofoccupations throughout the 1840s and 1850s, including working as a labourer andas aprinter. Although Liptonlater stated that he was born at his family's home in Crown Street inthe Gorbalsin 1850, there is no record of this in theparish register for that period. In the 1851 census, however, the family wererecorded as living in the north of Glasgow, with young Thomas being listed asbeing 3 years old, suggesting that he must have been born in 1848. Thomas'siblings, three brothers and one sister, all died in infancy, but Thomas, theyoungest, survived. "Tommy"Lipton was educated at St Andrew's Parish School close toGlasgow Greenbetween 1853 and 1863. By the early 1860shis parents owned a shop at 11 Crown Street in the Gorbals where they sold ham,butter and eggs. Thomas Lipton left school at the age of thirteen to supplementhis parents' limited income, and found employment as a printer's errand boy,and later as a shirtcutter. He also enrolled at a night school, the GorbalsYouth's School, during this period. In 1864 Lipton signed up as acabin boyon a steamer running between Glasgow andBelfastand was captivated by life aboard the ship and thestories told by sailors who had travelled to the United States. After being letgo by the steamer company, Lipton quickly used the wages he had saved topurchase passage on a ship bound for the U.S., where he spent five yearsworking and travelling all over the country. Lipton had a number of jobs duringthis time: at a tobacco plantation inVirginia, as an accountant and book-keeper at a riceplantation inSouth Carolina, as adoor-to-door salesman inNew Orleans, a farmhand inNew Jersey, and finally as a grocery assistant inNew York. He returned to Glasgow in 1870, initially helpinghis parents run their small shop in the Gorbals. The following year he openedhis first provision shop—Lipton's Market—at 101 Stobcross Street in theAnderstonarea of Glasgow. This enterprise proved to besuccessful and Lipton soon established a chain of groceries, first acrossGlasgow, the rest of Scotland, until finally he had stores throughout Britain.While Lipton was expanding his empire, tea prices were falling and demand wasgrowing among his middle-class customers. In 1880, Lipton invested in theyoungstockyardsofOmaha, Nebraska, founding alargepacking plantinSouth Omahawhich he sold to American interests in 1887.In 1888, when his empire had grown to 300 stores, he entered the tea trade andopened his tea-tasting office. He started bypassing traditional trading and wholesaledistribution channels (most UK tea-trading was focused in London'sMincing Lane) in order to sell teas at unprecedentedly lowprices to the untapped poor working class market. In order to provide his shopswith goods Lipton bought tea gardens and in doing so, he established theLiptontea brand, which remains in business as asubsidiary ofUnilever. Lipton visitedBritish Ceylonin 1890 and made business deals withJames Taylor, whointroduced tea gardens to the country with indenturedTamilworkers fromBritish India. Lipton's company purchased Ceylon tea,distributing it through Europe and the USA beginning in 1890.AtQueen Victoria'sdiamond jubileein 1897 he gave £20,000 for providingdinners for a large number of the London poor.