New York, New York. Washburns Patent Self Regulating Ventilator. Bowers NY-8344. Gilt brass. 38 mm.

New York, New York. Washburns Patent Self Regulating Ventilator. Bowers NY-8344. Gilt brass. 38 mm. Choice About Uncirculated.，Obverse: Congress Hall, SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY below. Reverse: Heavy orange card printed in black with 12-line advertisement, WASHBURNS / PATENT / Self Regulating / VENTILATOR / The Cheapest and most efficient / mode of Ventilation. / Protection to inmates from / sudden draughts / Applied to use / in / Congress Hall, / 137, 139, 141 ELM ST. N.Y. Dented twice in the shell, but the surface shows no breaks in the satiny gold gilding from handling. The color of the reverse is bold with just the tiniest nick near 12:00. This card comes with various color reverses, with both orange and yellow observed. However, very few have been seen at all and the Bowers reference suggests that only five to eight examples are known overall, but eight is closer. Two of these are in the ANS Collection, and one is at Massachusetts Historical Society.<p>Congress Hall was a vast resort hotel that was a summer getaway for many New Yorkers. The use of "inmates" rather than "guests" seems curious today. A brief description of the apparently renovated property was given in <em>The New York Times</em>, July 8m 1865:<p>"The building now completely occupies the four sides of the square. The ceiling of the vast dining-hall has been beautifully paneled, and is supported by a double-row of Corinthian columns, which not only give greater solidity to the building, but add materially to the perspective beauty of the hall. The immense ball-room forms an L with the dining-hall, and both may now be instantly thrown into one, affording accommodations for about a thousand guests. The famous collonade is also being continued round both wings of the building; the street on the north side being discontinued, and the piazzas and grounds of the hotel extended over it."<p>，Ex Q. David Bowers Collection.，