June 30, 20178 yr Metropolitan Museum of Art probably tops us all---even the stump is amazing: (zoom in for the close-ups!) http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/33025 16th century, Italian, weight with stand 251 pounds
June 30, 20178 yr I wonder what a machine shop would charge to make the face flat and smooth? Love the stand, I've always wanted a dragon in that pose to hold my forge. Pretty darned neat anvil, working art? Frosty The Lucky.
June 30, 20178 yr Author Wouldn't you like to whip that out at a demo...There is another famous one with a face on the side, I'll have to dig out the link to it sometime. (Searching on German Art Anvil should bring it up)
June 30, 20178 yr There is a picture out there in the ether of a post vice with a different face on each jaw. I saw it on Pinterest.. Wouldn't know where to start with search terms; two-face vice maybe?
June 30, 20178 yr The Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA, had one or more fancy anvils. Their collection was transferred to the Worcester Art Museum a few years ago. Some early, nice anvils are pictured in the catalog/book "Made of Iron" published by the University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, in 1966, It's a beautiful little book which reflected a show that their Art Department put together.
June 30, 20178 yr Author was it this one? https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/10/27/321027c2750f75d0501e0f0bb02aa575--vise-blacksmith-tools.jpg
June 30, 20178 yr Possibly so, I thought the image was clearer than that but it might just be a different picture of the same vise.
June 30, 20178 yr Author I seem to remember a "nicer one" too. how about this one? https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQc91zZ33Gvj_K0skd2lpwtTyVbfPpubdJtYuCwVOEbrOktXIXS1g
July 1, 20178 yr Neither do I Wayne but they could've used a wrench on a nut on the inside of the hook (moving) jaw. I can see a square something in both. It's also possible there was a crank that inserted through the face like an Allen wrench. Under the nose in the first pic and maybe the small face in the second pic is a cap that swings out of the way. That's speculation of course but it'd be a shame to stick a typical vise handle on either of those. I'd have to at least dress it up some way, maybe an exaggerated smoking type pipe. Very cool vises. Any more? Frosty The Lucky.
July 1, 20178 yr Photos added. I would guess that the square nut is the adjustment mechanism. First vise square nut on the far side of the vise on the non-moving jaw. Second vise, the square nut on the inside of the mobile jaw.
July 1, 20178 yr A person could put the female threaded section on almost any side of either jaw. Turn on the screw or turn the screw with a bolt head thingy, the spring returns it to open. The non moving jaw is the "Heel jaw" the mover is the "Hook jaw". Just like a pipe, monkey, etc. wrench. The terms for adjustable wrenches were taken from the post vise part names. I picked that up from browsing the patent servers right after the internet went public. Try now and you get buried in ads for what you MIGHT be interested in, forget what you wanted in the first place. That tidbit was part of the patent description on the application for an improved version of one of the first adjustable "monkey" type adjustable wrenches. You could look up THE first patent granted in the USA, wish I could remember what it was. The Franklin Fire place was in there but not by that name. The old patent servers were endless hours of terrific reading. That's right, the bell reducer on a piece of pipe "linear burner" shows up as part of a patent application drawing for an improved gas forge from IIRC just after the Civil War. Frosty The Lucky.
July 19, 20178 yr I picked up a French anvil book by Evelyn et Jean-Patrick Boye called Enclumes Et Bigornes Anciennes. It has quite a few highly decorated anvils and a with carved faces in it. My favorite is a stake anvil with the devil on one side and Jesus on the other. The book is has a lot of beautiful pictures of all different types of anvils. It was a little expensive and the text is only in French but I recommend it if you like pictures of Old anvils.
July 20, 20178 yr Frosty, The first patent issued by the U.S. Patent Office (pat. # 1, to Sam Hopkins) was for a process for making potash, in 1790. Thomas Jefferson influenced the constitution people to put a specific patent office stipulation into the Constitution. He was the principal author of said Constitution. SLAG.
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