archery tackle; sporting goods; Fruitvale Avenue; California manufacturers; pre-war sports; bowhunting; shooting range

Die-cut illustrated brochure/catalog for Potter and MacQuarrie, an Oakland archery tackle manufacturer and supplier located at 3400 Fruitvale Avenue. The red cover is cut in the shape of an archery target, printed in yellow and black, with the firm’s bow-and-target trade mark. The opening page includes a photographic image of the storefront and describes the business as an “Archery Sport Shop and Shooting Range,” with lessons by appointment and Wednesday evening shop hours. The catalog lists, describes, and prices arrows, bow staves, arrow shafts, quivers, gloves, arm guards, targets, tools, and related archery equipment, with described and illustrated pages of tackle and accessories. A well-preserved pre-war California sporting goods catalog, showing Potter and MacQuarrie as makers and suppliers of archery equipment rather than simply as a retail shop. Contemporary advertiser and directory listings place Potter and MacQuarrie at 3400 Fruitvale Avenue from at least 1937 into 1950; MacQuarrie’s California Archery Hall of Fame entry describes the partnership as operating from the mid-1930s to about 1960. Harrold C. MacQuarrie, partner with John Potter in the firm, later entered the California Archery Hall of Fame. His Hall of Fame entry describes him as a late-1930s tournament field captain, maker of cedar shafts, inventor of a dowel-making machine, and a principal organizer of Northern California archery clubs in the 1930s and 1940s. No institutional holdings for this company located in OCLC at time of listing. About 4-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches (11 x 18 cm). 16 pp. Stapled printed wrappers, die-cut at top. Condition: Near Fine.     less