Item no. P3620 (cover)

Type: cover

Country: USA

Date of use: 7 March 1919

Business stationery (cover) used by the company JOHNSON SMITH & Co. in Chicago (USA), a mail-order company established in 1914 by Alfred Johnson Smith that sold novelty and gag gift items such as miniature cameras, invisible ink, x-ray goggles, whoopee cushions, fake vomit, and joy buzzers.
On the left-hand side of the cover there’s a cachet showing the EXPO Watch Camera. It was a sub-miniature camera produced by Expo Camera Co. in New York (USA) between 1905-1939. Designed specifically for covert photography by the Swedish engineer Magnus Niéll (1872 – 1962), "The Watch" camera was utilized by both people wanting to surprise each other, but also police forces using it for covert surveillance operations.