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2026

Company letterhead

Congratulatory Letter from Möller, Oehmichen & Co. to Gustav Charitius

Cat. No. PRT-2026-019

An unusually attractive piece of commercial correspondence from the Vereinigte Barometer-Fabriken Möller, Oehmichen & Co., better known under the trademark MOCO, one of Hamburg’s important manufacturers of domestic barometers and related meteorological instruments.

Dated 12 November 1930, the letter was sent to Gustav Charitius of Weimar on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Charitius was a master precision mechanic who had established his workshop in Weimar in 1879; the business subsequently developed into an optical establishment and remained in the family until 1936, when it was taken over by his son Otto Charitius. A surviving history of the later firm also records that Gustav Charitius had acquired knowledge from Carl Zeiss, placing him within the wider network of German precision mechanics and optical craftsmen of the late nineteenth century.

The text itself is brief but revealing. Möller, Oehmichen & Co. states that it learned of Charitius’s birthday from the Deutsche Optische Wochenschrift, demonstrating the close relationship between the German optical, precision-mechanical and meteorological-instrument trades. The letter is therefore more than a private congratulatory note: it documents professional contact within a specialist commercial community in which opticians, instrument makers and retailers frequently dealt in overlapping categories of scientific apparatus. Of particular importance is the highly elaborate letterhead. A large aneroid barometer dominates the left side, while behind it appears a harbour with ships, suggesting the importance of maritime trade and export to the Hamburg manufacturer. On the right is a detailed illustration of the factory complex in Hamburg-Stellingen. Together with the MOCO trademark and extensive banking, telegraphic and telephone details, the design presents the company as a substantial, modern industrial concern.

Images

moco_blank-sm

Inscriptions & Annotations

The letterhead reads “Vereinigte Barometer-Fabriken Möller, Oehmichen & Co., Hamburg-Stellingen” and states that the firm was founded in 1877.
It gives the address Brandesstr. 12–14, Hamburg-Stellingen, together with banking, postal cheque, telephone and telegraph information. The telegraphic address is given as “MOCO STELLINGEN”, and the company’s characteristic MOCO trademark appears at the left.
The document is dated “Hamburg-Stellingen, den 12. Novb. 1930” and addressed to: Firma Gustav Charitius, Weimar
The typewritten message congratulates Gustav Charitius belatedly on his 80th birthday, noting that the company had learned from the Deutsche Optische Wochenschrift that he had celebrated it “in full vigour.”

Physical Description

Single-sheet typewritten business letter on cream paper with an elaborate illustrated company letterhead printed in black. The upper section incorporates the company name, trade and banking details, factory address, trademark, an illustration of a wall barometer, a harbour scene with steamship, and a detailed view of the company’s factory complex. The body of the letter is typewritten, with a handwritten signature at the lower right. Size: A4.

Provenance

The document was purchased from a German antiquarian dealer.

Document Details

Creator

Vereinigte Barometer-Fabriken Möller, Oehmichen & Co., Hamburg-Stellingen. Printer unknown

Subject

Möller, Oehmichen & Co.; MOCO barometers; German precision instrument manufacture; optical trade; Gustav Charitius; commercial correspondence

Date

12 November 1930

Place of Origin

Hamburg-Stellingen, Germany

The letter closes with “Mit vielen Grüssen” and bears a large handwritten company signature.

Language

German

GOOD

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