Study: Record /ABU Lure Paper Boxes

This work is the on-going study of many people who have already discussed the topic,  but recently primarily myself and Dr Tooma from Sweden (who tells me my site inspired him to collect and discover more in this fascinating field) , have decided to start documenting what we know. It is a work in progress and hope many people join in our quest.

Other acknowledged students of ABU have contributed ideas and images also , notably the Welsh sleuth himself Mike Elsworth.

So to start...Tooma has been collecting ABU lures and has a fine mixed collection but it is truly the boxes which contain them that have stirred his passionate interest.

The following discussion covers all paper boxes except for the one the Record perk was sold in. it was considerably different

Many of the  paper boxes exhibit great variation, some intentional as outlined, some minor and merely resulting from differing dye lots or change in manufacturer of the box.

 Despite some problems , we have the first two ABU paper box models 1 and 2 figured out.

Enjoy these very early Box Model Type 1 lures !

Model 1: This is the first 8 window box with black printing on the side, running from the very first lure up to 1949. the year of making is printed inside the box if you open it carefully.. the artwork is a bit different, the clouds, the colours, the lake and the rocks. This one is really easy to point out because of the black printing. I have seen different types of printings, only capital letters and ones with curved letters which reminds one of hand writing..

 
Model 2: It's the one where the artwork has changed to the usual but still with a 8 window factory. The information about the lure is now printed with blue ink. These boxes were on the market in 1950 with the Tylö draget and of course on the older lures. I don't know for sure when the 11-window box replaced this one, but around 1951 i would guess? These boxes have  "Robert Skarstedt Göteborg" written in blue inside of them and are the fist box with that information.

 
Models 3 (&4?) Here I need some time for further proof if these boxes existed at same time or not? My guessing (note guessing) is that the green fisherman box came first. These are the first 11-window boxes. The artwork is pretty much the same as in the model 2 box with just some minor differences. The fisherman has a green shirt and the 11 windows are the biggest changes (on model 3). The inside of the box is marked with rsa in a ring and Robert Skarstedt, everything printed with blue ink. (note: i have never seen a medium sized box with a fisherman with brown shirt marked Robet Skarstedt inside. The large ones has the brown shirted fisherman, but those are marked Skarstedts Göreborg with RED letters.  The typing of the information is with dark blue ink with a capital letter as the fist one ex: Svängsta-virveln. The length and colour are on the next row and the weight is printed last. The font type on letters are different than in the Esselte boxes, but more of them later. The model 3 boxes did run from around 1951 to ? (note nr 2: there are 2 different versions of model 3, and the only difference is on the printing of the lure information.  The last Robert Skarstedt boxes did get the Esselte type on the information of the lure. The lure's name is printed with capital letters, row two has now the weight and row three the length and colour. The typing is different and the same as the late Esselte-boxes which came next, this is the link between these two boxes. The ink is a lighter blue. The word langd (length) has been removed also. Last box i have is a 18gr joker which came out 1956.. I have also seen Koster with same printing, and they came out 1959..

 
Model 4: It has  the brown shirted fisherman box (medium sized as all) some minor but fully visible differences on the artwork to the green shirted boxes. such as  the clouds, the splash pattern of the fish, a bit darker colours. I call these the shark jaw boxes cause the splash pattern does create a shark jaw. Look carefully and you'll l see it! The biggest differences are inside the box. A company named Esselte has printed these ones and its printed there with red ink. Esselte also made the plastic lid boxes, so its only logical to think that these would be the last boxes before ABU moved to the plastic lid boxes. I can't figure out when these boxes were definitely  first made, but I  have a Hazard lure with Esselte printing, so after 1957 and up to 1960. This last time before turning into the plastic lid boxes is a bit fuzzy.  I guess that the Skarstedt boxes hung around for some while after the Esselte box was realised, or that they maybe came out at the same time. All i know is that Esselte is a major company in Sweden (and still is) and Skarstedts is a small family business which dissappeared around the early 60's. Could it be that Skarstedts could not deliver those amounts that ABU needed or that Esselte gave them a better price and offered them the plastic lid boxes to make the box cheaper. It really would make some sense. They printed the last paperboxes meanwhile they planned the new boxes for a year or two? These boxes came out from ?-? probably from 1957-1960? The font type of letters on the side are also different. They were pointy as the green shirt fisherman has more rounded letters spelling "a-b urfabriken svängsta sweden"

 
 
Model 5: This is the night box and probably the last paperbox ever printed. It has one strange thing, and that is that the artwork is very close to model 1, but has 11-windows. This is by far the rarest box in my opinion. The info is printed with that light blue ink, capital letters and has weight on row two and length and colour on row three.. My guess is that these boxes came out just 1959-1960. There are also late boxes which are unmarked on the inside, but they are with 99% the same as the late Esselte boxes which appeared just before the night box..

Please enjoy these comparison photos and see if you can see the differences.

Boxes 1 and 2 and boxes 1 and 5 here

Boxes 1, 4 and 5 By now  you should know which is which

Toomba and I have had long discussions on these matters and while some may consider us a bit insane, we have enjoyed learning (and hope to learn more) . So please feel welcome to contribute more ideas/theories  to myself or Dr Toomba

A few more of my Paper box lures from various times in the 40's to 50's

No doubt you can decide which era they belong to, the last is a USA export Whirler.

Mike Elsworth has made some discoveries in this area and I will post his image of a quite unique cellophane box designed it seems only for USA market.

We lovers of all things ABU, Mike Elsworth aka The Welsh Sleuth, has kindly shared so many great images here.
 
 What could be one of the rarest boxes is the Lill Toby, of which the box clearly exists but no one yet has discovered the lure to go within.

This box has not been seen anywhere but it was sourced from the USA, so it appears some early lures were marketed differently there.

And who has an opinion on this one?

 Please feel your input, help , criticism is very welcome and I look forward to expanding with network of Record ABU lure collectors and appreciators.

Contact me here to assist.