Thank you all for your assistance.
First of all, while talking about restoration with people generations older than me they often default to painting things in black rustolium as matter of practicality. I'm 26 and I have to struggle to remember that the orange grove sprayer was painted a soft yellow with red or black guard rails. And the water pumps were painted red and the enormous tractor under the garage was green. Yesterday I was chipping at the paint covering a lathe that turned sections for the Mount Wilson TV station in the 30's. I could only describe the color as a kind of creamy. Later I was looking at a large bank safe from the same era that appears to have been painted the same color but in much better condition.
I would have to agree that it was probably painted a color rather than black. As Ramsberg mentioned, advertisements were sometimes in color. It is important to remember that just because we interested in rediscovering or following in the footsteps of a tradition that is slowly rusting away, it doesn't mean that it always looked like that. I think that the manufactures of farm and industry equipment were just as mindful to aesthetics as we are today. Keep in mind that the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian structures and later European castle interiors were decorated in, what we would consider, garish colors.
Yes, advertisements are a good place to look. Also the US Trademark office has a large digitized collection of trademarks.... but I don't know how far back their database goes.
Ramsberg, could you tell me what is the approximate date of the photo of your Great-Grandfathers forge. I have a friend that specialized in antique photographic methods. He mentioned that early film was only sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, blue in particular. So a red object would appear black. Blue and green would appear white, which matches the picture with the original paint.
Thanks for all your help.
