Besides Clay & Company there were at various times Buffalo firms of Clay & Richmond and Clay, Cosack & Company, which last, says Mr. M.W. Bertrand of the Buffalo “Evening News” in a letter to Mr. Taylor, began in 1865. Much of the work of these firms seem to have been in chromo-lithography, such as the brilliant large advertisement, n.d., of Peter Schutler, wagon maker of Chicago, showing a covered wagon train in the mountains, but there are some uncolored, such as ‘Locke Richardson. Syracuse University, Clay, Cosack & Co.,” n.d., small, and many, chromos or not, are of interest to those primarily concerned with earlier work. There are, for instance, “How to Avoid Delays & Accidents! New York Central and Hudson River R.R. The only Four Track Rail Road in the World. Lith. by Clay, Cosack & Co., Buffalo, N. Y.,” n.d.,Large, and the fine hunting dog print, “The Winning Brace, Nellie & Dan. At the N. A. K. C. Inaugral Field Trials, Patoka, Ill. November 29th, 1879, Clay & Richmond…1879,” 19.14 x 13.5. This is a scarce print, and a copy of it hangs in our leading dog club, The Leash, in New York. It shows the American field trials better than any other known print-the winning brace, a setter and a pointer, followed by the judges on horse back, with the field of spectators in the background watching the dogs work. A most interesting lithograph, originally perhaps an illustration for some sporting paper or magazine. I have only seen two copies of this print.
“The Flight of the Fast Mail on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Ry…1875,” large, is not only a crude, attractive chromo of a train taking a mail bag, but has at the top a nice little view of “The Mail Currier of 100 Years Ago,” on horseback over a corduroy road. This is a most interesting railroad print.
Whether H. M. Clay mentioned above was the same Clay as this one I do not know; the work does not seem at all similar.