Industrial Chic News & Natterings

Victorian era not ready for retirement

2011-08-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

I read in Art Market Monitor that Europe is saddled with an excess of low-value artwork created during the Victorian years.

While AMM is interested in that glut for its predictive capacity in trending the value of modern art collections, I see it as another unwelcome example of our giving the 1800s an early shove into the "who-gives-a-fig" category, alongside the 1600s and 1700s.

I don't know what the official shelf life is for a century, but courtesy says it should not be retired as long as there are people living with recollections of persons and events begun/occurring therein. Using that test of relevancy, the expiration date on the late 1800s isn't until about 2050.

Century dissing aside, high quality images of those Victorian paintings should be captured, cataloged and secured before the artwork itself disappears. When artwork loses its entertainment value, the cost of preservation becomes an unwelcome expense and leads inevitably to benign neglect and disposal. Sometime before then the care taking job needs to be transferred to folks focused less on aesthetics and more on history and anthropology. Artwork from pre-camera times may contain answers to questions scholars will be asking in 2,000 or 5,000 years that we cannot anticipate. As much fun as it is to interpret, in the long term, the mundane task of preservation is the more important task.

History is filled with questions that could be at least partly answered if more artwork had survived. So little artwork was preserved from the 1500s, for example, that we have to guess which portraits definitely and accurately depict Shakespeare, and folks have spirited discussions over whether Anne Boleyn did or did not have an unsightly wen on her neck. If those examples seem frivolous, go back further and imagine how the discourse about Christianity might differ if we had an ample supply of real time artwork illustrating Christ's activities. In that context, the worth of a picture shouldn't be determined by the skill of the brushwork.

A. J. Plate, San Francisco Arms Dealer

2011-08-15T01:46:00.000-07:00


1864 advertisement for A. J. Plate's San Francisco store.

A. J. Plate, San Francisco's most famous 19th century arms dealer

Herman Adolph Joseph Plate's place in history was secured when he lost a patent infringement lawsuit over the Deringer pistol.

Herman Adolph Joseph Plate
(1818-1878)

Plate Becomes Naturalized
US Citizen in 1844.
Born in Borghorst, Germany (one of the villages merged in 1975 to create Steinfurt), Plate immigrated to New York in 1836. A cabinet maker, he and two of his five brothers built a furniture business in New York.

Augusta Agness Tolle
(1820-82)

In 1849 Adolph started a family with Augusta Tolle, with whom he would raise 4 children. Later that year, after a series of three fires destroyed the furniture business, Plate became one of the Gold Rush Forty Niners. While his wife and infant son, Henry, remained in New York, Adolph headed for California to work the gold mines. In May of 1850, when he had accumulated a small stake, his family followed him to San Francisco, their household belongings sent via the U. S. Mail Steamship Company, and Adolph opened his first San Francisco store.

That first store was modest, consisting of an outdoor stand where he sold ammunition and used pistols. Those were boom town years for San Francisco, with the population growing from 200 in 1846 to over 36,000 in 1852.
Plate's business flourished and by 1855 he was importing arms and contracting with other companies to build weapons to his specifications.

In 1865 Plate opened a manufacturing facility at 325 Montgomery St. to produce uniforms and regalia for fraternal organizations such as the Masons and the Odd Fellows.

From 1867 to 1881 the store was located in the old Knickerbocker fire house at 411 Sansome, between Commercial and Sacramento streets, surviving the San Francisco earthquake in 1868. (Plate's sons, Henry and Augustus, had joined the business by 1871 and after Adolph's death moved the business to 418-420 Market Street.)

The Deringer Pistol

Henry Deringer (1786-1868), a second generation Philadelphia gunsmith who founded his company in 1806, invented what would become one of history's most famous pistols. The easily concealed Deringer was the gun chosen by John Wilkes Booth when he assassinated president Abraham Lincoln.

John Wilkes Booth's Deringer used to
shoot Abraham Lincoln

The Deringer was popular because it was lightweight and compact. To compensate for its single-shot capacity, users carried a pair that sold for around $25, including a custom calibrated bullet mold.

Henry neglected to patent his gun and before long there were copycats. While some imitators produced percussion pistols that were similar, one company, Slotter & Co., started by former Deringer employees, scrupulously copied every detail, including the A.J. Plate private label stamping that was made for Plate's first purchase of 54 pairs of the Deringer pistol in 1858. Around 1860 Plate purchased an additional 428 pairs, many of which bore the Slotter's fake A.J. Plate label.

The Civil War brought new technology to weapons and when sales of the Deringer pistol declined, Henry turned to the courts to defend his trademark. Suits were brought against several of the imitators but it was his successful 1863-70 case against A. J. Plate that set patent infringement history. A District court awarded Deringer $1,770 in damages and issued a permanent injunction against Plate's use of the Deringer trademark; on appeal the California supreme court upheld the verdict.

Augusta spent several years in Europe after Adolph's death and died in Utah while on route from New York to San Francisco and traveling with the J. W. Mackay family.

About Harry Debevec

2011-07-28T01:27:00.000-07:00

Harry DeBevec's work lamp

Harry R. Debevec c1980

August, 1946 Chronicle Telegram

Many of our customers like to know how we acquired the things they buy from us, and whatever history we have about the item. Most often we're lucky if we can supply information about the manufacturer. In the case of this lamp we don't know the identity of the manufacturer but the web turns up a bit of information about one of its owners: Harry Rudolph Debevec (1921-2001) of Ohio.

The lamp was originally equipped with a clamp and attached to an industrial machine, such as a lathe. All those knuckle joints helped a worker to shine the light exactly where it was needed. In 1960 Harry replaced the clamp with a disk base, into which he stamped his name, probably to prevent a coworker from swiping it. So far I've failed to learn where Harry worked but perhaps someone who knows the family will drop me a line. ( Email ) Harry spent most of his life in and around Elyria, Ohio, a steel town, so metal work of

all types would have flourished there, especially during and just after WWII.

In 1946 Harry led a polka band called the Top Hatters. Tophatters is the nickname for U.S. Navy fighter attack Squadron 14 that provided air support for the invasion of North Africa in 1942 and in 1945 flew assaults on Tokyo, Formosa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Harry's younger sister, Alice, was in the military so it seems possible Harry was too, maybe as a fighter pilot.

Harry and Alice died the same year, 2001. Their father, Frank, passed in 1958 and their mother, Johanna, 3 years later. A brother, Ed, died in 1962 and a sister, Jean, in 1984.

Harry's Top Hatters played Elyria night spots, specifically Eddie & Bob's Nite Club on 37th and Clifton Avenue in Sheffield Township, Lorrain County, OH.

Harry married Rosella Szabo and they raised their two children -- a daughter named Sharon and a son, Harry F. DeBevec, nicknamed Sonny -- in Elyria, Ohio. In 2009 Sonny lost a battle with cancer at age 59. Like his father, Sonny was a musician.

Repurposing a 20-Drawer Library Card File

2011-07-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Replacing the Army green paint
on this old metal library cabinet will give it a new

personality.

1940s card file cabinet manufactured by General Fireproofing of Youngstown, Ohio

Things to store inside:

Spools of thread
Kitchen utensils
Paintbrushes
Rulers
Scissors
Needles
Toys
Tubes of paint
Beads
Jewelry
Doll clothes
Craft supplies
Spaghetti noodles
Fishing lures
Fingernail polish
RC car parts
Sewing notions
Herbs & spices
Makeup
Baseball cards
Recipes
Medicine
Socks
Razor collection
Hair bows
Brushes & combs
Photographs
Yarn
Shells
Scrapbook Materials
Spectacles
Matchbox cars
Fisher-Price figures
Pens & Pencils
Watch collection
Stickers
3"x5" index cards :)
Seed packets
Stamps
Little Ponies
Coins
Miniatures
Guitar supplies
Weed
Salt & pepper shakers
Soap
Crystals
Candles
Audio parts
Pocket knife collection
Lighter collection
Christmas ornaments
Notes for your novel
Receipts
String, glue & tape
Fasteners
Faucets and washers
Golf balls & tees
Chopsticks
Tools
Inventory
Stationery supplies
Headbands
Photography accessories
Knitting needles

Aardvarks. Even the name sounds funny.

2011-07-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Get an aardvark picture fridge magnet.

Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) can weigh 150-180 lbs, making them about the weight of a Mastiff dog. They get to that size on a protein-rich daily diet of 50,000 ants and termites found in the grasslands of Africa. An aardvark eats as it digs into an anthill, ignoring the stinging and biting, zipping out its long and sticky tongue to scarf them in, the ants going directly to its muscular gizzard-like belly, with minimal if any chewing. Yum.

Romance & Family Life
Aardvarks team up to mate, then go their separate ways, living mostly solitary lives, though males do have multiple mating partners and cubs stay with their mothers til around 6 months of age. After a 7-month gestation, a single 4-pound hairless cub is born. By 2 weeks of age it is able to follow its mother. After nursing for 3 months, it starts chowing down ants and termites and is ready to mate around age 2.

Stylin'
In adulthood most of an aardvark's fur is worn away. Those fun ears and big snout are part of acute hearing and smelling capacities to help them find ants beneath the soil. They can move their ears separately, or fold them back when tunneling. (Just checked and some humans can wiggle their ears. Here's a
how-to if you want to master the skill.)

Communication
Grunting, mostly and, when terrified, bleating.

Entertainment

Aardvarks spend their days sleeping and their nights foraging for food in a 3-mile home range. They are color blind and have poor vision. Sounds like a possum, giant size. According to the Bronx zoo they are digging machines.

Housing
An aardvark may nap in a shallow hole but it's primary home is a burrow, sometimes complex with a half dozen entrances and sections as deep as 20 feet under ground, Several aardvarks may share the burrow but not as a family, more like roomers in a boarding house.

Lifespan

In the wild they live 18 years and in captivity up to 23 years. Their primary predators are tribal hunters, big cats and python snakes . Aardvarks are not an endangered species so maybe they're not tasty. Their thick hide may make them too tough for some predators. Tribal magicians make charms from their organs, skin and nails that purport to give burglars the ability to pass through walls and roofs.

Thanks to the Zoology Museum at the University of Michigan for such great information about aardvarks.

Animated Smurf Film a Gotta See

2011-07-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendar for July 29

Cute as puppies and with adult personality traits that
sometimes remind us of people we know. Columbia
and Sony Pictures are poised to introduce the first 3D
feature film about Smurfs. We supplied a few props
for the film* so are a little biased but after watching
the trailers we're looking forward to seeing it, even if
our props didn't make the final cut.

Synopsis When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the
Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their world
into ours -- in the middle of Central Park, New York
City. . Stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a
way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks
them down. A young married couple, the Grace's, give
give them a hand.

Neil Patrick Harris (Mr. Grace)	Jayma Mays (Mrs. Grace)
Sofia Vergara	Hank Azaria (The Villain)

Directed by Raja Gosnell (Chihuahua & Scooby-Doo)
Produced by Jordan Kerner (Charlotte's Web & George of the Jungle)
Written by J. David Stem, David N. Weiss (Shrek 2 & 3) and Audrey Wells (George of the Jungle)
Starring:

Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD & How I Met Your Mother)

Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury on Glee, Ugly Betty & Heroes)

Sofia Vergara ( Modern Family & Meet the Browns)

Hank Azaria (Huff & The Simpsons)

And the great voices of Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette, Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf, George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf, Paul Reubens as Jokey Smurf, Kenan Thompson as Greedy Smurf, B. J. Novak as Baker Smurf, Jeff Foxworthy as Handy Smurf, Wolfgang Puck as Chef Smurf, Anton Yelchin and Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf

* Look for wheels like this, maybe in a basement, or castle:

Unfair Rap for Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt's X?

2011-07-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes bread crumbs lead to unexpected places

While researching a railroad promotional pamphlet I became a bit obsessed with learning about a RR land seller named T.H. Leavitt. He was one of a pair of sellers cited on the pamphlet and since I'd assembled a blurb about the other fellow I felt obliged to do the same for T.H. It took some searching but I was finally able to confirm that T.H. was Thomas H. Leavitt who helped bring 100,000 or so settlers to the west and became a valuable citizen of Lincoln, Nebraska. Mystery solved.

Well maybe not.

In the process I also learned that Thomas was once married to a famous temperance figure and an outspoken suffragist, Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt. Their marriage ended in separation around 1865 and was finalized by divorce in 1878. For the next 40 years while Mary traveled the world lecturing and writing about the sins of alcohol and other societal ills, she left the impression with her supporters that her former husband was a bad sort.

Nothing new about someone ragging on their former spouse except that in this case that extra dollop of martyrdom made for such a nice touch that the story has lingered for 79 years after Mary's death, popping up all over the web and in a 1991 book, Woman's World/Woman's Empire: the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930, where author Ian R. Tyrrell states, "Her marriage in 1857 to a wealthy Boston land broker had quickly gone sour in scandal and personal unhappiness. Thomas H. Leavitt was, by all accounts, 'a spendthrift,' and it is likely that this was not the greatest of his sins."

If read yesterday, I'd have gone merrily on, thinking about the poor temperance lady with the jerk husband. Instead I read it just after reading a number of nice things about T.H. So I now ask if this describes a bad guy?

Thomas was active in the Lincoln, Nebraska historical society, was in fact elected by the Lincoln City Council to serve on the organization's first board of directors.
He was a trustee in the Congregational church.
In 1893 he helped organize a Chautauqua program at the Lincoln Penitentiary.
He founded the 20-acre Riverside Stock Farm in Lincoln where he raised 250 head of cattle, 200 hogs and annually produced 20,000 lbs of cheese.
In 1886 he was involved with an organization formed to control alcohol abuse in Lincoln.
For 3 years his second wife was the president of the Lincoln chapter of the American Missionary Association, an abolitionist organization.

Certainly a history-loving/church-going/prisoner-helping/farmer/cheese-making/alcohol-reformer/spouse-of-an-abolitionist can be a cad, and Thomas may have undergone a positive transformation after moving to Lincoln. Or...maybe he was married to the human Mary, not the demagogue, no better or worse than he, and they just didn't get along.

As to the criticism that Thomas was a spendthrift, it has to be noted the characterization comes from a woman who set off on a world tour with $35 in her pocket, then built a reputation for traveling with minimal money while her fans picked up the tab. IMO anyone who has such a weird relationship with money isn't qualified to judge how others spend theirs.

So maybe, a century after his death, poor Thomas H. Leavitt deserves to catch a break.

Missouri & Burlington River Railroad's Role in Settling the West

2011-07-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Iowa and Nebraska Land Offer Pamphlet Magnet

Missouri & Burlington River Railroad Company.
The 1872 pamphlet on which this magnet is based was published by the Missouri & Burlington River Railroad company. Using an illustration of the Big Blue River between Camden and Crete in Nebraska, it offered attractive credit terms on acreage: 6% for a 10 year note with the first payment not falling due until the 4th year, and a 20% discount for a cash payment. The offer was further sweetened with transportation rebates.*
Running through southern Iowa, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (B&MR) was the third railway between Chicago and the Union Pacific junction in Kerney, Nebraska. The project was conceived around 1850 but it wasn't until 1869 that serious construction got underway, beginning with 2.5 million acres from federal and state grants. By 1872 the line was acquired by Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RR (CB&Q).

To build a market, start by importing buyers.
For railroads west of the Mississippi, laying rails was just the first step. For
profitability they needed fares from passengers and, more importantly, from cargo. Since population was sparse, railroads first had to sell land so as to increase the number of residents operating farms and ranches, who would then pay fares to ship their produce and livestock east to Chicago. Whew. Talk about growing the market! Players of video games such as Frontierville (or SimCity for ye older folks), probably think, "well doh, of course," but I wonder what awareness Harris and other railroad land commissioners had of themselves as nation builders or history makers.

Preiswerter Flächeninhalt, Westen nach Nebraska!
The Burlington Railroad's colonization efforts are credited with creating Lincoln as well as a dozen other cities along the rail line. In their promotions, land officers targeted immigrants from certain countries they felt were better at farming. One land officer had poor regard for Italian and French farmers, for example, so used selective language transcription in promotional pamphlets to attract immigrants he felt were better farmers, ie., people from Germany, Scandinavia, England, Wales, Scotland, Russia and Canada. In other words, immigrants from Italy or France who did not read German, English or Dutch were less apt to find their way to Nebraska.

Targeted sales were also accomplished by leg work from traveling salesmen and advertising in European and American cities on the east coast. The ads usually consisted of small classified advertisements placed in newspapers and agricultural magazines. Interested parties were invited to write for a pamphlet or send $.30 for a map. According to correspondence from one European agent, Burlington was disadvantaged in attracting immigrants because the company didn't offer the goodies offered by others such as free land, houses, implements and wages.

Burlington Railroad Land Commissioners became part of Lincoln community.

George S. Harris (1815-1874)

As senior land commissioner for the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad George S. Harris sold 600,000 acres in Missouri. He then went to work for Burlington and sold 360,000 acres in Nebraska and Iowa. A Caldwell, NY native, Harris is credited with selling land to over 100,000 European immigrants from 1869-1874.

George made his home in one of the cities he helped build, Lincoln, Nebraska, with his wife Sarah and their 10 children. He was instrumental in establishing the Congregational church and was active in the Republican party. Reportedly his life was shortened when he narrowly surviving the sinking of the steamer Metis in Rhode Island in 1872. Pioneer Park in Lincoln was part of a 600-acre donation in 1928 by one of George's sons, as a tribute to his father and the pioneer immigrants who settled in Nebraska. Another of his son's, George B. Harris, distinguished himself in the railroad industry, becoming president of the Burlington & Missouri.

T. H. Leavitt, Assistant Land Commissioner
Thomas H. Leavitt founded the 20-acre Riverside Stock Farm in Lincoln where he raised 250 head of cattle, 200 hogs and annually produced 20,000 lbs of cheese. The Riverside place was sold to Charles M. Branson in 1883. Thomas was formerly of Massachusetts and, like his boss George Harris, a trustee in the Congregational church. He was also active in the Lincoln, Nebraska historical society, elected to serve on the organization's first board of directors, and in 1893 helped organize a chatauqua program at the Lincoln Penitentiary. In 1886 he was involved with an organization formed to control alcohol in Lincoln. Leavitt remarried in Nebraska; prior to that he was married to a noted temperance leader and suffragist, Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt.

Lincoln, Nebraska history

The Q Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad CBQ

Burlington and Missouri River Railroad (B&MR)

*What?
I don't understand the following paragraph on the pamphlet and would enjoy hearing from someone with an interpretation. I get it that they refunded the ticket price to land buyers but do not understand the business about terms better at $5 than pre-empting at $2.50.

Land Exploring Tickets Sold and Cost allowed in First Interest paid, on Land bought in 30 days from date of ticket. Thus our Land Buyers Get a Free Pass in the State where the Land bought is located. TERMS are BETTER at $5, than to pre-empt United States Land at $2.50 per Acre. Ordinary inducements on freight and passage are afforded to purchasers and their families.

Repurposing Purpose?

2011-06-30T01:18:00.000-07:00

What was wrong with converting? Wasn't that a sufficiently puffy way to say you're turning a library table into a dining table? Does repurposing add more to the value than converting?

Ok, so maybe repurpose and convert are not synonymous. Conversion indicates the object has been changed in some way, but you can repurpose without changing. So if you put a bigger top on the library table, you are converting, but if you haul it home as is and eat dinner on it, it's only been repurposed, and if you then sleep on it, you've repurposed the repurposition.

Glad to have worked that out.

Steel Tops for your Industrial Table Making Project. Wood too!

2011-06-30T00:32:00.000-07:00

For several years we've sold vintage industrial machinery bases for table making projects; now we can supply tabletops too. Initially we're offering steel and wood in two standard sizes and 5 standard colors, as well as custom sizes/colors to suit.

(We'd like to offer glass but shipping large flat glass is soooooooo costly
that for the time being you're advised to find glass tops in your local market.)

Standard sizes: A meaty 1-3/4" thick x 30" x 30" or 16" x 60"
Select steel or hardwood. Wood tops are available in one of 5 colors (below)
.
These sizes are great for end tables, sofa tables or side tables. Custom sizes/finishes also available.

Steel tops have an oak core that mounts to your base. The steel is polished and waxed with ordinary auto wax to prevent rusting. (Annual rewaxing is needed to keep the rust away.)

Famous Arches

2011-06-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Arc de Triomphe (Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile)
Honors soldiers from French Revolution, Napoleonic War and WWI.
Designed by Jean Chalgrin. 164’ high. Completed in 1836.

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park near Moab, Utah
52-foot high
Designed by Mother Nature

Gateway to the West, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
St. Louis, Missouri.
Designed by Eero Saarinen. 630 feet high
Completed 1965

Archie Sofa Table

Built by Industrial Chic. Designed by Marco Polo

29.5" high x 58" wide x 16" deep x 91 lbs

Uhl Art Steel Company History: The Famous Toledo Drafting Stool

2011-06-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

Helping a friend find homes for a large stash of Toledo stools from the chemistry lab at a small college provided an excuse to explore the history of the company that built them.

What came to be known as the Toledo Metal Furniture Company was started as Uhl's Cycle Emporium at 1021-23 Monroe Street in Toledo, Ohio in 1898. Philip E. Uhl (president) and Clement Richard Uhl (VP/supt) founded the company on $85. Others of the 10 Uhl brothers joined the firm,including Joseph Ferdinand Louis Uhl (secretary/GM), Otto G., Charles, Henry and Robert Uhl. Joseph, a 1-legged concert violinist, also directed the family Concert Band and Orchestra.

As the popularity of automobiles reduced the market for bicycles (1900-1910), the Uhl's shifted their focus to manufacturing ice cream parlor furniture, renaming the company Uhl Art Steel, and in 1904 incorporating as the Toledo Metal Furniture company. By 1920 capital stock reached $300,000, there were over 150 employees and the product mix had been expanded to include office and classroom furniture. (See 1950s Toledo elementary student desk below.)

According to a 1914 Journal of the National Association
of Retail Druggists, Clement and Joe designed the unique

locked truss-rail leg assembly of cold rolled steel that
remains a hallmark of the company's furniture (see patent
illustrations below). In addition to lending a distinctive design element, the truss was important in creating a product with the strength and
durability to endure rugged use by students, telephone
operators, military personnel, draftsmen and ice cream
parlor customers.

Early Toledo stool seats and backs were constructed of bent

plywood. Though pleasing aesthetically, they were prone to
splintering and delamination.

When plastics fabricating became efficient, the company
jumped at the opportunity to improve its products by
designing thick molded seats and backs of solid plastic,
ensuring that stools built in the 1960s would be in use
40-50 years later.

Efforts to learn about the last few decades have not been fruitful but a helpful reader has passed along a link to the Toledo Furniture company.

Clement Uhl (or a son) was still designing

as of 1933 and in 1975 one of Clement's son's, Philip, filed
a patent for a collapsible picnic table for the company.

The famous Uhl furniture truss seems to have been
patented in 1902.

By 1905 the company was expanding from ice cream

parlors to the office where clerks, draftsmen and telephone

operators needed rotating seats. Here is a page from one of

the Uhl patents in 1905 for a revolving stool.

This 1906 Uhl advertisement probably came right from

the heart: "Uhl Art Steel Chairs are built to last for all time.

They are light, yet possessing the strength of Samson."

That fuzzy type at the bottom?

Tis the price: $4.50 for the chair or stool.

Typewriter stands were patented in 1912.

A Toledo Metal Furniture double student desk
and chair set from the 1950s.