Lot
670 
The Atlantic Dynamite Co. of N.J. Spectacular multicolor design on 1901 cover showing Cyclops with Lighting Bolts, franked with pair of 1901 1¢ Pan-Americans tied by Indianapolis, Ind. machine cancel, reverse with all over multicolor text ad, small edge tear at right & one 1¢ defective, Very Fine, a very rare design, ex-Beals, which sold for $660 in 1987, the highest price for any post 1869 cover with the exception of one Laflin & Rand cover which also sold for $660. Estimate $400 - 600.
After Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866, DuPont's conservative head, Henry DuPont, had resisted entering the new business. However, Henry's progressive nephew Lammot expressed a keen interest and in 1880, with the assistance of Laflin & Rand, Lammot formed the Repauno Chemical Company to produce and sell dynamite.
This joint venture proved extremely successful, and two years later Lammot expanded operations to Cleveland to supply the booming western dynamite market. Four years after Lammot's death in an accidental explosion in 1884, a young coal-mining executive, J. Amory Haskell, was elected president of Repauno. Determined to enlarge and consolidate Repauno's extensive holdings, Haskell acquired the Atlantic Dynamite Company, which held Nobel's American patents. In 1895 he established the Eastern Dynamite Company, which incorporated Atlantic Dynamite as a wholly owned subsidiary.
In 1902 DuPont purchased Laflin & Rand's interest in Eastern, thereby assuming control over 72 percent of the nationwide dynamite industry. In 1911 a Federal court ruled DuPont in violation of antitrust laws, and as a result DuPont's explosives businesses were split off into two newly created, separate firms, the Atlas Powder Company and the Hercules Powder Company.
Realized: $700