Old Pennsylvania Anvil age/ID help

[ForlornHopeFarms]

Hello from southwestern Pennsylvania. I could use some help dating this anvil from our farm, and it’s value. I believe it is an older Peter Wright anvil based on the markings and what I see on this site. I appreciate your time.

 

-Brent

[ForlornHopeFarms]

I found this anvil completely buried in one of our equipment buildings about 12 years ago by accident while moving a couple old tractors and kicking up dirt. Unfortunately anyone in our family who would have had information on it has passed on. I can provide better pictures if that helps. The only markings are the 1-0-3 and it weighs in at 113.7 on the bathroom scale. Any information would be helpful.

[George N. M.]

Mallory, Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  The anvil has had a lot of use but it is still very usable as long as it has decent rebound.  Can't help on the maker or age though.

BTW, if you put your general location in your profile it will help with answers.  We will forget PA pretty quickly when we leave this thread.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

[Frazer]

I took a road trip down to southern PA to pick up my anvil. It seems they are less expensive by you, especially compared to NY.

Given the condition and assuming the face is still hardened* I think a fair price would be in the 2-3 dollars per pound range. $3/lb is probably pushing it IMHO. That being said I'm sure you could find someone willing to pay more.

The 1-0-3 stamp is the weight using the hundredweight system: 1-0-3 = 112lbs + 0 + 3lbs = 115 lbs

*To test find a ~1/2" ball bearing and drop it from ~10" and see how far back up it comes in it's first bounce. This is generally expressed as a percentage. If you don't have a ball bearing tapping the face with light ball peen hammer can at least give you a rough idea how "bouncy" the face is.

[ThomasPowers]

If there is no readable maker stamp it becomes very difficult to determine the maker for older English Anvils as there were over 200 different makers over the time and many of them made pretty identical anvils as they often would "learn the trade" working in one place and then go out and start their own and "make what they knew".

[ForlornHopeFarms]

Thank you for your comments. I don’t have any bearings that size, but the light ball peen made a beautiful ring and nice bounce back. I got it out in the sun and rubbed a little oil on it to see if there are any other identifiers. I was wrong about the 3. It looks more like a 5 now. 

The wife is leaning on me to lighten our load as we are selling the house and I have my fair share of heavy metal as any man should. 

I thought this was a PW just due to the 4 holes and the way the weight was chiseled in. I didn’t realize there were that many Old English manufacturers. I’m still betting this is older than 1850. The farm had the original sheepskin deed signed by William Penn. 

i took a couple more pics. If you see something that I don’t please let me know. Thank you all.

[ThomasPowers]

Have you tried the flour method to show up light stampings?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The flat areas on both feet sure look like Peter Wright's (or copy there of) to me.

[SLAG]

Mr. FLHF,

Don't dump the metal. Metal is long-lasting but many wives are sometimes ephemeral.

Tell your spouse that the metal is an integral part of you, that only surgery can sever.

As concerning your anvil, pritchel holes came after 1820. Unless an older anvil was drilled.

As for edges, you can get even more milage, if you do some smithing left handed. It's a neat thing to learn. And you can always switch hands. on a heavy duty job.

Regards, and welcome to the club.

SLAG.