Promotional Plumb Bob?

[pcrov]

New pick from gramp's garage fresh out the soup revealed something more interesting than I expected under the rust.

A promotional plumb bob? Anyone ever seen one of these? Or maybe it was a center punch? Judging from the mushrooming on the tail end it was at least used as one a few times. Seems odd for a furniture store either way, but maybe 120 years ago it wasn't?

The text on each side reads:

Overell's 7th and MAIN STS.
EXCLUSIVE AGENTS
AUTOMATIC REFRIGERATORS
COMPLETE HOME FURNISHERS
ASK ABOUT OUR
DEFERRED PAYMENT PLAN





A cursory search turns up this likely candidate from the Pacific Coast Architecture Database:

Overell's Furniture Company, Store, Los Angeles, CA (1904)​

AKA: Dearden's Home Furnishings Store, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - stores

Designers: [unspecified]

Dates: constructed 1904

4 stories, total floor area: 48,096 sq. ft.

700 South Main Street
Downtown, Los Angeles, CA 90014-2013

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Overell's Furniture Company operated in this four-story retail building from 1904-1910, when Dearden's Home Furnishings began operations here.

I would love to ask one of their exclusive agents about a deferred payment plan on an automatic refrigerator.

But it looks to be this now https://7maindtla.com/:

A Historic Department Store Reimagined as
a Contemporary Creative Office Campus in the Fashion District

Oh and they have an old picture too!



Yep that's the logo! How neat is that!

The place only existed for 6 years over 100 years ago and here's this thing from it.

 

[Provincial]

It could be something completely different that was repurposed as a center punch. Perhaps an ice pick.

 

[larry4406]

The plumb bobs I am familiar with have the string hole concentric with the pointed end.

Yours has a perpendicular thru hole. It would either need a missing wire hoop thru the hole for the string to align with the tip, or a loop tied thru the hole.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

It could be something completely different that was repurposed as a center punch. Perhaps an ice pick.

A brilliant deduction, Watson! Not only because advertising on ice picks was extremely common (collectors prize them for the markings), but because it would make clever sense to advertise refrigerators on an icepick tied to an icebox by a long lanyard for a woman to read as she starts chipping away at a bed of ice.

The place only existed for 6 years over 100 years ago and here's this thing from it.

That architecture database source is apparently mistaken.

Overell's on Seventh and Main was advertising Automatic Refrigerators in full page ads in the Los Angeles Examiner as late as April 13, 1924. Here is a link to the page (106) in the California Digital Newspaper Collection of Cal Richmond's Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research.

Here is a clip...

 

[four.cycle]

^ Did the newly-introduced "Automatic Refrigerators" require being set up perfectly level and plumb in order to operate properly?
Did each refrigerator come with a plumb bob to check for level and plumb?

It doesn't appear to be re-worked, and if somebody was pounding on the end of it with a hammer - using it as a punch - would it not have distorted that round hole drilled through the end? For that matter, when's the last time we saw a punch or chisel with a hole drilled through it at the back end? That doesn't make sense.

Only the wealthy could afford "Automatic Refrigerators" in the 1920s.
The po' folks had "Ice Boxes" well into the 1930s.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ Did the newly-introduced "Automatic Refrigerators" require being set up perfectly level and plumb in order to operate properly?
Did each refrigerator come with a plumb bob to check for level and plumb?

You and the plumb bombers will have to do your own research on that, 4.c. I'm with Jock and an ice pick on this one.

 

[crguy]

That's Not a plumb bob.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I don't think it's a plumb bob either. I was just exploring that space. I don't think it's "ice pick" either - they just weren't made that way (with hexagonal shanks.) Bob's Collection of Ice Tools

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...they just weren't made that way (with hexagonal shanks.)

I've never seen one. They are usually 4-sided, round, or flat, like buttonhooks (another popular advertising tool). But I'm all in on this one due to the advertising and the all-steel ice picks I have seen with early fridge advertising (despite them being 4-sided). God hates a coward, and I am preparing to be proven wrong by listening to some classic Zappa...

"Here comes the ice pick in the forehead..."
Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt, Joe's Garage (Act I), 1979

 

[four.cycle]

They are usually 4-sided, round, or flat, like buttonhooks

exactly.
"Ice Tools" is one genre I've struggled with, but there are dedicated sites for the devices so I haven't invested a great amount of time on it.
We forget that the ice industry was a really big deal prior to the advent of modern refrigerators.

I'll go back to my cowbell and explore the space a bit more.