here's a fabulous set just sitting and waiting for a new owner.
I know I sound like a broken record on this point, but Blackhawk doesn't get enough credit for its design principles, which were extraordinary for such an early era. No better example than the handle on these early attache style cases. They could've put anything on there. But they chose to use the same rotating grip they use on the handles on the tools inside. That is attention to detail, a desire to marry form and function, and a conscious style decision.
I do wonder why the decal on this set doesn't have a set number. As any Q.D. collector knows, the set model number is the number of pieces in the set. To wit, a No. 18-A set had eighteen (18) pieces, a No. 32-CD set had thirty-two (32) pieces, etc. And they were put on a flying folded banner like decal just underneath the brand decal. And that case and decal is in such excellent condition, it’s unlikely to have come off. It looks like it never had one.
It's only the second set I have seen without one. The first was just posted at the end of my old GJ Q.D. 32-CD restoration thread, page 2, post #26, linked
here.
At first I thought it might’ve been an early set, before they came in different sizes. But that rotating grip wasn’t patented until 1926, and they were already using four different set numbers for four different set configurations in the 1926 Catalog.
EDIT: Disregard last comment about the set at the end of my resto thread not having a set number decal. It does. Very faint. No. 32-C.