The Hibbard Spencer Bartlett Co. was a large wholesale hardware company that started in the mid 1800’s. The Creek Chub Shur-Strike connection started in the late 1930’s. HSB branded their products from their manufactures to gain exposure in the marketplace, and used various brands over the years including OVB, and True Value. During the late thirties when their relationship started with Creek Chub, they were using the True Value brand.
HSB designed a beautiful 2 piece cardboard box to be used for their line of Shur-Strike lures. Pictured below, it was red, white, and blue design.
The breath of product included some of the most successful Shur-Strike lures including the River Runt, Bass Oreno, Plunker, and Injured Minnow. However, they also used the MO style Mouse lure, which was not as common as the others.
I have found boxes with two different numbering patterns, including the standard Shur-Strike pattern which has an abbreviation for the lure, and then the # code. The other pattern was a store code pattern that was inherent to HSB. It began with a C and then had 4 numerals and a letter G.
The most unusual HSB True Value lure is not even a Shur-Strike! It is a a Horrocks and Ibbotson Mouse lure that came in grey and frog color. I would love to find the box marked C-1069G for my friend and fellow collector Chris Labuz.
In the 1943 HSB catalog, they listed the following displays of Shur-Strike lures. One of the displays has the True Value Mouse, and you can see that the HSB numbering system was in place. This confirms that the Shur-Strike numbering system was used on the earlier lures and they moved to the HSB #’s in the forties. it also confirms that the Shur-Strike Mouse was used in the earlier years, and for some reason, they decided to go to HICO for their Mouse in the later years.
I am always looking for boxes I do not have, so if you have any, please let me know.
Great article. The H&I Frog mouse was only made for HSB