Alexander Manufacturing Company stock certificate 1880's

One of the best pieces in stock collecting.  This piece features a very early flush toilet in the vignette.  Unissued but  circa 1881 from issued examples.

Incorporated in Michigan with operations in Detroit, the Alexander Manufacturing Company made porcelain toilet bowls and wooden closet tanks.  In 1869, David Buick (of General Motors auto fame) started working there at age fifteen and rose to be a foreman.

The company folded in 1882 (flushed down the toilet financially). William Sherwood and David Buick acquired the Alexander Manufacturing Company in 1882 (renamed Buick and Sherwood Company with Buick as president) . By 1889 Buick had invented several items such as valves, lawn sprinklers, water closets and bathtubs. The most famous was a process for bonding enamel to cast iron making the porcelain kitchen sink and bathroom fixtures possible including the toilet. Buick was cantankerous, as well as a dreamer and interests were not really business, he loved to tinker. After amassing a fortune in plumbing business, David Buick the dreamer began playing around with gasoline powered engines then automobiles.