Toolemera Blog

A Patented Plane Trade Card

George M. Thompson certainly thought big. Back in 1874, he patented what he must have thought would be his ticket to easy street. Thompson's patented bench plane was, as it turned out to be, just one of the multitude of patented iron planes to hit the market during the last quarter of the 19th Century. I know... I said 1874. So Mr. Thompson was off by a year. Certainly one of the more flamboyant trade cards of that period, Thompson went for a flaming bright colored card with seven separate font styles. Modern day typographists would turn green if a client asked for this combination of fonts. But our Mr. Thompson didn't do things in a small way. Although his planes are now exceedingly rare (read: such a flop that almost nobody bought one, or so fragile that they fell apart simply on sighting a length of hard maple) he seemed to have bet the laundry on this one.

In an attempt to produce a plane that incorporated design elements similar to other planes on the market, Thompson fiddled this and faddled that to come up with a metal plane that looked like it was designed by a committee.  Certainly it was a peculiar looking beast and it must have caught the eye of the prospective buyer. If there were more than five buyers in total. Let's just say that this plane is almost never seen outside of the major tool collections. This was typical of the late 19th Century inventors. Function often came second to form. Flash and things that did something esoteric and mysterious held the attention of both the public and the inventor. If you doubt me, look up the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851. There you will see why the latter part of the 1800's exemplified excess of ornament. Take a look at the patent drawing for the Thompson plane and imagine just how much of a pain it must have been to adjust this thing. Possibly it made a good cheese grater?

George M. was an ambitious man. He was not satisfied to stop at one patented plane. This trade card reveals more about one person than does your typical store card. George seemed to be attempting to cover all the bases in his inventorship. Pat. Bench Planes, Horse-Car Couplings (the poor guy was not ahead of his time by any means), Belt Punch, Countersink Bits, Callipers, Dividers, Lemon Squeezers (??), Egg Beaters and Portable Blacksmith Forges. My guess is that he was a fan of lemonaid, had been left in the lurch at least once when the horse left him behind, was something of a compulsive individual who insisted on getting his measurements correct, took out his aggressions at the forge and simply liked scrambled eggs.  The fact that all of his patent rights where for sale says that while George was a man of deep thought, his wallet was empty. Poor guy couldn't even hire an agent who would be available for more than 3 hours a day.

The commonly held understanding is that trade cards began as a means for a merchant or tradesman to note prices of goods, all the while using a small card or piece of paper that would remind the buyer to whom the money was owed. Our George did them all one better by offering his entire stock of patents for sale on one eye-catching card. Although I do have to wonder at the advisability of presenting oneself as an inventor who has too many inventions for sale at any one given time.

All that aside, this remains a particularly rare trade card from the inventor of a peculiar woodworking plane. Rarity aside, there's a wealth of information that can be derived from a careful examination of the card, along with a little bit of creative license.

This trade card, amongst others, can be found in the Manufacturing > Hand Tools section of The Toolemera Press website. It's actually one of the first trade cards that I collected, well before I was totally consumed by ephemeritis.

In subsequent posts I'll be digging up odds and ends to talk about as well as announcing new material at The Toolemera Press web site . Feedback and comments are always welcome. I'm still in the process of deducing the workings of Typepad, which is to say that I am fumbling my way around here figuring out what works and what doesn't.

Best
Gary Roberts
The Toolemera Press & Toolemera ePrints

One Great Trade Catalog

The Jos. Harm trade catalog is one of those surprises that comes along once in a while. When I bought it online, I had no idea that it contained as much information as it does. It appeared to be simply a Dutch tool catalog, something that was missing from my collection. It's a lot more than a simple c1900 tool catalog.

There is a also a nice little hidden gem. Take a look at the upper left hand corner of the catalog cover. There is a small label with a number on it. I always assumed that these where some sort of file number. While reading The Complete Ironmonger, I came across a chapter devoted to the organization of information, namely, catalogs. The author recommended numbering all trade catalogs for easy reference. That would mean that somewhere, in some forgotten corner of an Old Book & Ephemera Emporium there may be the long forgotten record of one hardware merchants written record of the trade catalogs held for reference for the ambitious counterman.

Let's take a look at the languages represented in this  catalog. Dutch, French and English. Curiously enough, the French style tools are noted as French & Belgian. I somehow think that Belgians might be upset at being lumped in one category? Throughout the catalog, each tool is given, usually, translations between the three languages. Occasionally there is no translation when there does not seem to be a corresponding name, or possibly when the author simply didn't know.

This is an example of what I would call a Badger plane, a roughly 15" plane with a skewed blade, a depth stop and a knicker for cutting across the grain. I guess this particular bit of nomenclature escaped the linguistic capacities of either the writer of the catalog, or the printer. (Since first I posted this blog at another not-to-be-named blogger, it has come to my attention that this is, in fact, a really really large rabbett plane, one with a fence, depth stop an knicker. Apparently the Dutch had a need for a rabbett plane on steroids)

There are also a number of tools that are typically described as being from the early 19th Century or even the 18th Century. Yet here they are in their full glory, offered in a turn of the 19th Century catalog. In looks and function, this would appear to be a pair of 18th Century hollow and round planes of the type often used in the ship building trades. Sorry folks, it was sold around 1900, not 1800. The style has not changed one bit in the passing years.

Let's go on to one of my favorites, the 18th Century Brace. Here are three examples of wooden braces that are the spitting images of the tools often seen in 18th and even 17th Century engravings. There are even a pads (the little gadget in the upper right hand corner and just below the left hand brace) that held interchangeable bits. For many years it was assumed that this style of brace and pad was exclusively an 18th or 17th Century beast. It's through ephemera such as trade catalogs that we get to see what was sold and bought during different time periods. Plus we get to see that while some things change, form follows function... it worked a few hundred years ago and it still works today.

Just when you are reading through this catalog and getting used to the seemingly antiquarian styling of the tools, you come across this choice number... A Stanley Rule & Level Company No. 46 Plow Plane. One of the nicest tools ever made. And solidly stuck in the late 19th and on through the 20th Centuries. Florid Victorian castings highlight a functional design that woodworkers today love. Without the frills and chills of the Stanley No. 45 or 55, the No. 46 does one thing and does it well... it cuts either with the grain or against the grain. The Jos. Harm catalog actually offers plow planes in Dutch, French/Belgian and US/British styles. Although this catalog seems to have been intended for the Dutch market, I strongly suspect that the Dutch craftsmen where miles ahead of their British, Continental and American compatriots when it came to adopting the most appropriate tools design to accomplish a given task.

You can see why trade catalogs can be both a good read (at least to a tool collector) and a primary source of information when researching tools, trades and industries. Unlike books (now don't get me wrong... I love books too), trade catalogs are not open to an author's interpretation. What you see is what they got. Stop in at my site www.toolemera.com and peruse the Trade Catalogs section. The Jos. Harm catalog is found under the 1900-1924 subsection for Trade Catalogs as well as under Merchants > Hardware.

Best
Gary Roberts

www.toolemera.com