Neil's family used to own a general store and these three items were in use in those days in the early 1900s.
The first item is a small box that holds a set of ten metal marking stamps, of the numbers 0 to 9. It was produced by Axminster of Devon (telephone 3114)
The second item is also a box of stamps. This time the stamps are designed to be used with an ink pad. I only photographed one of the stamps and it is clean of ink so may never have been used. I didn't check the other stamps.
The third item is a box of metal stamps, one for each letter of the alphabet plus a few other symbols like '&'. They would have been used to stamp words onto metal.
This post has been in response to the theme photo for Sepia Saturday, a type-setter at work. You can head on over to the webpage to see what other bloggers have made of the theme.
An interesting collection that fits right in with the prompt. The metal marking stamps are something I've not seen before.
ReplyDeleteOh, you've reminded me of a small stamp I have that belonged to my maternal grandfather. It has birds on it and a slot within which to set type. The type is in an old Hartz Mountain bird seed can. I took possession of this item after my grandfather died. It was until years later that I was looking through my great-greatgrandfathers notebook that I noticed that he had used the same stamp to put his name in his book back in the 1860s.
ReplyDeleteWow! I've never seen stamps like this before. Very interesting.....
ReplyDeleteWonderful clear picture and you’ve reminded me of the stamps I used to use when teaching, to mark the pupils’ work. I still have one that says “Excellent” - so here you are I’m stamping your post with it!
ReplyDeleteNeat post! A whole new aspect of stamps for me -- could the metal ones also be used to stamp leather?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting collection. I am glad you started photographing these heirlooms. I hope you will get back to this project.
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