Gimbel Brothers, Incorporated hand signed by Isaac Gimbel - Pennsylvania 1903

Beautiful RARE certificate from Gimbel Brothers, Inc. issued in 1903. This historic document was printed by American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company's logo. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, Isaac Gimbel and Secretary and is over 103 years old. This is the first time we have had this for sale and only know of one other.


Certificate Vignette

Gimbel's, now defunct, was a famous U.S. department store. The company, founded by the Gimbel brothers, opened its first store in Philadelphia in 1894. In 1910, a store was opened in New York City where Isaac Gimble was manager and President. The company was further expanded through the acquisition of Saks and Company in 1923.

The store was made famous in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. An homage was also paid to it with reference to that store in the 2003 comedic holiday film Elf as the fictional setting of the title character's workplace.

Gimbel's flagship store in New York was located in Herald Square near Macy's. Designed by architect Daniel Burnham, the structure has been severely modernized and now houses the Manhattan Mall. The Gimbel's branch at 87th Street and Lexington Avenue remains, but has been converted to luxury apartments.

The company was sold to Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. in 1973, and by 1987 the last of the Gimbel stores had closed.

Isaac Gimbel

Company: Gimbel Brothers Department Stores

Tenure: 1894 - 1925

Industry: Retail

Birthplace: Indiana

Born/Died: 1856 - 1931

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White

Era: pre-1900

Bio: In 1909, Gimbel built a Gimbel Brothers Department Store in New York City, which became a huge success. Building upon this success, Gimbel purchased a 16-story building in New York, to which he added three more floors to give Gimbel Brothers Department store 27 acres of floor space. Gimbel grew his company into the largest department store organization in the world with $123 million in net sales by 1930 and 20,000 employees.