Jewelers Anvils

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up these miniature anvils at the flea market this morning.

The brass anvil weighs 1.8 ozs. The steel anvil weighs 2 ozs.

Usually the examples I see are either cheap pot metal, often painted, or, on the rare occasions they're actually cast iron or steel and vintage, made as a promotional item. I don't believe that either of these anvils is in that novelty category. I could be wrong - and I am open to assessments, especially from those who have a knowledge base with respect to jewelers tools, but I believe these were vintage working anvils.

The brass anvil, which shows signs of use, would've been needed for soft material. It has an intriguing engraving on the bottom: “H. FISHER”. If that last name doesn’t ring a bell for you, how about when it's associated with the founder of the Eagle Anvil Works, in Newport, Maine and then Trenton, NJ (1843-1979), Mark Fisher? He was generally credited with making the very first anvil in the U.S., famous for its tool steel face and lack of ring.

I am in contact with the guy who runs the Fisher & Norris Museum in Trenton to see if they even made miniature brass jewelers anvils, and if any the offspring who continued with the company had a first name starting with an "H".

This is just intuition on my part, but I believe the steel anvil was made for clamping into the jaws of a jeweler’s vise. That high narrow base is too unstable for using it freestanding, and that recessed area (exactly 11/16" I.D.) is the perfect width for the jaws on small bench vises. I happen to have a Luther, and it happens to fit perfectly.

I have never seen a miniature anvil like this before, but I can't really see what else it could be for. It's ingenious. I spent some time going through old trade journals and ads, but I haven't run into another example yet.

It is marked "Germanie" above an “/AL\” forge mark.

At first I though the spelling an affectation, but I have come to find out that spelling is not so unusual prior to the late 1800's, when England, taking measures to control imports, adopted a "MADE IN GERMANY" rule. But I don't know. Lending some credence to the notion is the fact that Germany is noted for double-horn anvils. But again, I don't know for sure. Just random thoughts at this point.

 

[rusty65]

Wow! Really like the post it looks like you’ve got a good score. Lots of interesting information.


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[Dsel74]

The brass one is most likely a metal work shop class project.

The steel one is a very common pattern of jewellers anvil. Most however have stake on the bottom that goes into a wooden or cast base. Versions are still made today.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, dsel74. I thought the stamp was too uniform for a prior owner's marking, but you could be right.

 

[woody 73]

Private I don't remember ever seeing any brass anvils at the jewelry store; now I could be mistaken as that was ay long time ago over 60 years by now. I do remember seeing many different tools but I thought I saw a small steel anvil unit on the bench top.

 

[steaks&anvils]

Lugz, Try searching by "goldsmithing anvil stake".

That looks more like a "stake" than an anvil.

and this search turned up quite a few tiny brass anvils "vintage watchmakers anvil stake".

worthpoint turned up these:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-jeweler-silversmith-1909682319

-jeff

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks for the tips, jeff.

 

[drivesitfar]

LUG: great looking little guys. the one with the boxed bottom does look like it was made to fit in the jaws of a vise doesn't it?

another name for the pieces put in the holes on the back of a bigger anvil are HARDY which might also help your searching.

i'm guessing the brass one might have been a jeweler's like you mentioned or just a SALESMAN'S sample?

i'm here to learn cause that's what I do as often as I can.

cheers and have a great weekend.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, Drives! I was familiar with hardies, stakes, and stake anvils, but I had never seen any stake or stake anvil with that shape, and I am not yet wholly convinced they aren't intended for jewelers' vise jaws. If my search continues to come up nil, though, I will admit to faulty intuition.

 

[transam81]

I picked up this one last year. I assumed it was a jewelers or watch makers anvil. But could just be a paper weight.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Hmm. That's a tough call, transam. Normally I have seen the mini anvils with advertising on them considered to be promotional items (or, as you say, office paperweights), but in this case it has the name of an anvil forging company, so I don't know. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will weigh in.

 

[MShaw]

Here is what I have. I had a part time business for many years repairing clocks. I used this quite a bit over the years

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I had a part time business for many years repairing clocks.

Interesting. I don't know if you're a big reader, and if so, if you like fiction, but I am and do, and one of my favorite novels of all time is Tinkers by Paul Harding. The main character, George Washington Crosby, is a traveling clock repairman. Anyone who is in the least bit mechanically inclined, enjoys American history, the great outdoors (where Crosby, a bit of hermit, spends a good deal of his time rucking his tools from townhome to farmhouse to cabin to shack and back...), and lyrical prose will enjoy this novel. It explores the intricacies of clocks, time, families, and the state of Maine. Pulitzer Prize in 2010.

 

[steaks&anvils]

Thanks, Drives! I was familiar with hardies, stakes, and stake anvils, but I had never seen any stake or stake anvil with that shape, and I am not yet wholly convinced they aren't intended for jewelers' vise jaws. If my search continues to come up nil, though, I will admit to faulty intuition.

I Agree, this anvil stake looks like it was made to be held by a vice, "form follows function".

This stake has a groove for the vise jaws, there are many examples like this, that are meant for being held by a vise. You rotate it to have another face to use. Apparently, this stake is very happy to be in that vice...

BTW, yours is a very nice anvil stake and I certainly would have grabbed it too.

-jeff

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I Agree, this anvil stake looks like it was made to be held by a vice, "form follows function"...[ ]...BTW, yours is a very nice anvil stake and I certainly would have grabbed it too.

Thanks, Jeff.

 

[Dsel74]

I picked up this one last year. I assumed it was a jewelers or watch makers anvil. But could just be a paper weight.

It’s a promotional anvil. I have a glass display case almost full of them.

The Coks Anvil & Forging Co. minis sometimes include the Ann & hammer logo.

Is yours aluminium or steel? I thought theirs were all aluminium but your photo of the top looks like it could be steel.
Would you like to sell it?

 

[Dsel74]

These are some of mine. They were like promotional pens everybody was giving them away.

Think pre computers & air conditioning offices full of stacks of paper with all the windows open and fans blowing in summer. Paper weights were an absolute necessity so what better way to keep your company name in front of people. I’m not sure why anvils were so popular as the often have no relevance to the advertisers business. Of course anvil manufactures also used them for promotion.

 

[transam81]

Cool pictures. I believe mine is aluminum and the other side does have part of the arm logo.
I don't have any plans to sell it.

 

[rusty65]

These are some of mine. They were like promotional pens everybody was giving them away.

Think pre computers & air conditioning offices full of stacks of paper with all the windows open and fans blowing in summer. Paper weights were an absolute necessity so what better way to keep your company name in front of people. I’m not sure why anvils were so popular as the often have no relevance to the advertisers business. Of course anvil manufactures also used them for promotion.

Do you have one like this?



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[Dsel74]

I also made my own. In brass, Silicon Bronze, SG Cast iron & recently Aluminium.

I hope this info is of interest & I have dragged the topic away from the original post.

 

[Dsel74]

Rusty86. No I don’t have one like yours. It’s quite nice, I think I may have seen it on Facebook in one of the groups?

 

[rusty65]

Rusty86. No I don’t have one like yours. It’s quite nice, I think I may have seen it on Facebook in one of the groups?

Thank you. I have posted it on Facebook. I’ve been trying to find one similar so I know if it was a factory piece or a handmade item.


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[Private Lugnutz]

I hope this info is of interest & I have dragged the topic away from the original post.

No worries at all. found two older threads on the subject of mini anvils when I searched GJ before posting, but one of them was made out of a very narrow gauge railroad rail, and the other was an anvil bank from a trust company. They were both very short threads and I didn't want to revive those just to hijack/piggyback them, so I started a new one for mine. But I am more than happy for it to burgeon into a broader thread on the topic in general. These are the first and only two I have ever come home with, but looking at all the other makes me think I might get hooked. I have an antique jewelers bench where I keep the jewelers tools I find. They look good on it!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I just got this email reply from Joshua Kavett, the owner and curator of the Fisher & Norris Anvil Museum, links here and here, video tour here, in Adelphia, NJ.

“The double ended anvil is a small jewelers anvil, made to be used in a vise, as you pictured.

The brass anvil is a mystery. There are no markings indicating it was made by FISHER, and I do not know if they ever cast brass. They could have had it made by someone else. There was a person with the initial H. associated with the family. Harriet Fisher married into the family and ran F&N for 35 years. But there is no way to know if this was ever associated with her.”



That stunning revelation led me to this interesting photo of Harriet Fisher in the office at Fisher & Norris Eagle Anvil Works (care of a cool website called “The Office Museum” – a digital collection of old offices, linked here)…

And, if I squint my eyes hard enough, I think I can see a brass anvil paperweight on her desk.

The Office Museum site also included this interesting bio:

“After the death of Mark Fisher in 1871 and the death of his partner John Norris the following year, the company passed to Mark’s son Clark, who had served as Chief Engineer of the US Navy during the Civil War. In 1898, 61-year old Clark Fisher married 29-year old Harriet White (1869-1939), who thus became Harriet Fisher. In 1902, the Fishers were in a train derailment. Clark died of his injuries shortly thereafter. Although she had no related training or experience, Harriet quickly mastered every aspect of the anvil business, took over management of Fisher & Norris, and became an exceptionally successful and wealthy business woman. Known as the “Anvil Queen,” she won the contract to provide anvils for construction of the Panama Canal. She owned a 28-room mansion on a 13-acre lot outside Trenton NJ and a villa and yacht on Lake Como in northern Italy, where she spent several months each year. The photo above shows Harriet Fisher in an office at her company in 1909.In 1909-10, Harriet Fisher, her Italian maid, her British butler/cook, her chauffeur, and her dog spent more than a year driving her luxury Locomobile touring car on a challenging trip around the world – through France, across India and SE Asia to China and Japan, and then across the US. This was the first round-the-world trip by a woman in an automobile. After the trip, the maid and butler married and Harriet White Fisher published A Woman’s World Tour in a Motorcar, Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1911.”

Seriously, when I found it, I was disappointed that it was an "H" instead of an "M". Now, knowing what I just learned about Harriet, I am happy it's an "H". And, until proven otherwise, I am going to consider this to be her personal paperweight.

 

[drivesitfar]

LUG: you can't say you don't do your RESEARCH. OMG that is a great find and story!!!

thanks for sharing cause i never had a clue. that sure puts some of the issues to rest about a woman not being able to succeed in a man's world back in the early 1900's cause she sure did. WOW!!

I have a feeling you're smiling more than a little about that find?

 

[Capt. Curt]

Yes, that "brass" small anvil in a promotional display item only for Mr. Fisher's foundry business (nicely done!). Brass would be way to soft for any jeweler's type anvil work. I have a small bronze anvil which is much harder than brass and I left a small mark in it when I trying to use it on just tapping a soft metal on it....it's a very NICE disply piece today

 

[txlonghorn1989]

Interesting. I don't know if you're a big reader, and if so, if you like fiction, but I am and do, and one of my favorite novels of all time is Tinkers by Paul Harding. The main character, George Washington Crosby, is a traveling clock repairman. Anyone who is in the least bit mechanically inclined, enjoys American history, the great outdoors (where Crosby, a bit of hermit, spends a good deal of his time rucking his tools from townhome to farmhouse to cabin to shack and back...), and lyrical prose will enjoy this novel. It explores the intricacies of clocks, time, families, and the state of Maine. Pulitzer Prize in 2010.

Sounds like an enjoyable read Lugz. I definitely will give it a read. Thanks!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have a feeling you're smiling more than a little about that find?

I am, but I am making the claim a bit tongue-in-cheekishly without actual provenance. It will be always be a good story though!

Brass would be way to soft for any jeweler's type anvil work.

Seeing that you outrank me, I am ill-prepared to argue with you, Capt. Curt. No, seriously, there sure are a lot of them around identified as jewelers anvils, and I have read that jewelers and goldsmiths used brass holding and striking tools in the same way machinists and mechanics do when a soft blow is necessary. But I am not gong to fall on my sword arguing about it without more documentation or evidence.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Sounds like an enjoyable read Lugz. I definitely will give it a read. Thanks!

Glad to help. Let me know what you think. It intersects with GJ in a few different ways, now that I think about it further. The title comes from the fact that the clock repairman is also a tinker, selling wares to the remote residents in that part of Maine out of catalogs clearly modeled by the author on Sears & Roebuck or Simmons ("Keen Kutter") Hardware and the like. Some of those early passages have hilarious exchanges between Mr. Crosby and his customers. "Why do I need a new and improved one when the old one works just fine?"

 

[Provincial]

I found this tiny anvil at the local Flea Market yesterday. It had been spray-bombed with blue paint (you can see some traces of it in the photos) over what looks like boiled linseed oil. The top of the anvil sits 11/16" above the mounting surface. It is about 3-5/8" long overall, and the main squared-off area is 7/8" by 1". The Hardy is 1/2" square at the large end.

At first, the only marking I saw was a "3" on one side. After cleaning the spray paint off that surface I can see (despite the hammer marks) "S__FEI__" just above the 3.

Notice the small hole in the top of the squared-off horn of the anvil. The hole goes through the horn and is larger in the bottom side of the horn.

This anvil has seen a lot of use, judging from the hammer marks. I think it will get more use from me.

 

[akasrick]

I picked up these miniature anvils at the flea market this morning.

Avalible through a Prentiss catalogue, 1896.

akasrick

 

[MShaw]

"one of my favorite novels of all time is Tinkers by Paul Harding. "
Thanks for the tip Lugz. Looks interesting.

 

[454ragtop]

Here's a few more, thought I had 8, found a couple more as I was putting them away.