Antique Wilkinson Plough Iron Age Print Block Plow

Description: Antique Wilkinson Plough Company printing block made of copper on very heavy exotic wood. Circa 1906. This is very highly detailed and hand wrought and depicts a farm implement known as a plough (or USA preferred spelling is plow. invented by the Wilkinson Plough Company. This was made to produce a printed illustration for advertising in catalogues for farm equipment in conjunction Bateman Manufacturing Company in Grenloch, New Jersey who made the "Iron Age" line of equipment. (It was among a collection of Bateman printing blocks that came directly from the Bateman House in Grenloch where it has been stored for over 100 years). It is quite detailed. This is one-of-a-kind piece called a stereotype and is highly collectible! Condition: Has a slight gash on the back - otherwise fine. This piece is comprised of two blocks of wood with copper plate. Specifications: 4.5 inches by 2.5” by 7/8 of an an inch thick. HEAVY for its size. In 1836 the Bateman Manufacturing Company started doing business in Grenloch, New Jersey. They manufactured farm and garden machinery and implements and had many innovations and inventions (including the potato planter shown above). Toward the late 1800s they started marketing these products under the name of “Iron Age.” They sold their products all over the world and marketed them through catalogues, trade journals, and other printed matter ads. To illustrate their products they relied on printing blocks which followed the same progression throughout the decades as the printing innovations – starting with hand carved boxwood blocks to stereotypes (making a mold of the engraved block in plaster and pouring in molten metal [similar to type metal] to make a cast. The cast was then mounted onto a block of wood to make the printing surface the same height as the type. Zincographs involved making a plate with raised images and affixing it to wood. Then came electrotyping with copper. A basic description of the process is as follows. The engraved surface of the woodblock was pressed into hard wax making an impression that could be used as a mold. This mold was then dusted with ‘black leading’ to provide an electrically conductive surface. The mold was placed in an electrolytic bath and a thin shell or skin of copper deposited over the surface of the mold. The copper skin was stripped off the mold, laid face down in a tray and the back filled with type metal to give it strength. The resulting metal electrotype, commonly called an electro, was then mounted onto a block of wood and printed alongside type. In this way many copies could be made and distributed of one wood-engraving. My one-of-a-kind collection contains examples from all of these techniques and these fine blocks are now being offered to the world of print block collectors, antiquities lovers, and antique farm equipment aficionados. Every piece is different. They came directly from the stored estate of the Bateman Family in Grenoch, New Jersey. Although there were earlier suppliers, some of the boxwood and other exotic wood came from a company called V. Grottenthaler in Philadelphia (listed in 1867 to 1876 as “manufacturers of Boxwood for engraver’s use. Other boxwood was stamped “A. W. Carlson 58 Fulton St. NY.” Also “A.P.J. 18 Spruce Street NY. Some came from Carlton Engraving Co. in Worcester, MA. Some of the slighter later boxwood and other woods were stamped “C. Van Vlack Springfield, Mass. (Listed in a 1913 directory of Massachusetts businesses). For a while Bateman Mfg. operated in Toronto, Canada under the name Batemen-Wilkinson. Bateman’s Iron Age transferred from them to Farquahar in York, PA around 1930. Farquahar had been selling its Iron Age implement lines for years prior to the actual buy-out and continued with various Iron Age sprayers and other equipment. Disclaimer: I have researched these blocks and guarantee them to be the real deal and the source to be without question since I personally removed them from a former very old house of Mr. Bateman after purchasing them and there was also some company literature in this stockpile. PB No. 178

Price: 22.9 USD

Location: Sewell, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-01-16T22:22:11.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD