Tecumseh Products Company stock certificate (1937) 

Great affordable collectible from a well known company. Nice vignette of allegorical Greek male figure in front of industrial scenes. Issued and cancelled. Dated 1937.

Most famous for small engines (lawnmowers and snowblowers), Tecumseh Products Company is now a manufacturer of hermetic compressors for air conditioning and refrigeration products. Tecumseh Products Company has subsidiaries that sell externally and internally to Tecumseh. The Tecumseh corporate offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Tecumseh Products Company was founded by tool and die maker Raymond Herrick, in 1934. Raymond Herrick applied mass production concepts he had learned from automobile manufacturer Henry Ford to the production of refrigeration compressors.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Tecumseh Products Company was called upon, like many American businesses, to aid in the war effort. This resulted in Tecumseh Products Company using its facilities to manufacture artillery shells for allied forces. Following the end of World War II, Tecumseh Products Company continued its production of refrigeration compressors and expanded into manufacturing compressors for air conditioning units.

In 1956, Tecumseh Products Company purchased the Lauson Manufacturing Company, which was founded in 1895 by John Lauson. By the time of the purchase in 1956, Lauson Manufacturing Company had grown into one of the largest manufacturers of small gasoline engines in the United States. Following the purchase, Tecumseh Products Company dismantled most of the Lauson Manufacturing Company and used the assets to create Tecumseh Power Company.

In 2007, the company's former gasoline engine and power train product lines were sold to Platinum Equity LLC. In December 2008, the company closed its engine manufacturing division. Later Tecumseh Power sold off its Peerless transmissions business to Husqvarna Outdoor Products. In 2009, Tecumseh Products completed a move from Tecumseh, Michigan to Pittsfield Charter Township, Michigan. Tecumseh closed its doors on February 2009 when Platinum Equity LLC announced that Tecumseh Power Company had sold certain assets of its engine business to Certified Parts Corporation, including all existing and unfinished engine parts inventory, tools to make finished product and certain intellectual property assets.

ref wikipedia