Incredible cast iron Americana. Huge fruit basket topped with a stylized red ribbon door stop. Made by Hubley Mfg. ca. 1920.

Another great doorstop from the same collection of the earlier Sarah Symonds piece. Unseen for 30+ years, first time offered for sale here. Early and a 100% original example. It is 16" tall and 8" wide. Spectacular.

The Hubley Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1894 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania by John Hubley and produced toys throughout its history. Early Hubley production consisted of many cast iron toys including various horse drawn vehicles, guns, and household objects such as doorstops and bookends. Many of their cast iron objects were dogs, and they are highly prized by collectors today. With the automotive age, cars, trucks, and other transportation became their focus. The Hubley Company made accurate metal replicas of Model A Fords and other cars for many years; for example, there are 7 Model A Ford body styles alone: Sedan, Station Wagon, Coupe, Roadster, Roadster Pickup, Victoria, and Phaeton. Though mass produced, Hubley toys and doorstops were painted by hand, so each has become a unique treasure appreciated both for its subject matter and the “folk art” quality of its paint, form and design. After WW II, die-cast zinc alloy models for the most part replaced the cast iron ones. In the casting process at Hubley, metalworkers would carve out a form of wood, or hammer the doorstop or toy design out in metal. The form was then pressed into finely compacted sand, making an impression. Cast iron heated to 3000 degrees was poured into the sand mold and, when cooled, the form would pop out and rough edges were filed off. In the decorating department, painters applied a base coat (usually white or cream but sometimes black) to the doorstop. Then, colorists used a variety of hues to highlight important details, usually only on the side that would face toward the room. Many doorstops bear identical color schemes, suggesting that decorators may have copied a model finished by a master artisan. A well-cast iron doorstop will be smooth in texture. Small chipping of paint is acceptable, but there should be no repainting of an antique item.
Hubley doorstops have been bringing record setting prices in recent auctions have drawn the attention of folk art collectors, as well as decorators, and of course, doorstop collector enthusiasts. As such, Hubley doorstops and toys are being reproduced, so it is important that collectors educate themselves and seek out experienced collectors and dealers. Older doorstops usually have a smoother, more refined casting, while reproductions are rougher or pebbly. Seams in the casting, if any, are usually tighter on the original doorstops. Reproduction doorstops cast in 2 or more pieces are usually assembled with Phillips-head screws, while the originals used slotted screws. The mold marks in old casting were generally ground off by hand using a file, while reproductions are cleaned up using power tools and tumblers, leaving coarser grinding marks. Look carefully at the wear patterns on the doorstop, and remember most old doorstops were used for their original purpose of holding doors open. Therefore, look for wear in the logical places – at the top where it was handled and around the base.

There are 3 tips you should keep in mind when assessing vintage and antique doorstops and other cast iron toys from manufacturers such as Hubley and Bradley & Hubbard. First, the better the condition, the higher the likelihood that the doorstop will retain and increase in value over time. Second, doorstops with outstanding form, character, sculptural quality and folk art appeal are in demand among collectors, all of which cause the price to go up. Finally, look out for the rare or unusual examples. In some cases, the original production run was low because the designs failed to find a market, because they were too costly to produce, because the foundry was in business for a relatively short time, and sometimes just due to poor quality or design. Hubley Manufacturing Company was bought by Gabriel Industries in 1965 and disappeared from the market shortly after the take-over. (courtesy Collectics)

Cast iron Americana: Incredible door stop made by Sarah Symonds (1870-1965) Salem, Massachusetts. Young women traveller named Phoebe with hat box and carpet bag. 100% original paint ca 1910.

 Cast iron American antiques come in many forms. Still banks, toys, door knockers, snow birds, weather vanes, tractor seats, windmill weights, whimseys of all sorts and door stops. This incredible piece is available for purchase here. You will not find a better one anyplace.

Sarah W. Symonds (1870–1965) was widely known for her figurines and bas relief plaques of historic sites throughout New England that “recall our colorful past.” The daughter of Lydia F. DaCosta and Lemuel W. Symonds, Sarah graduated from Emerson College in Boston “at a time when only a few courageous daughters of America were launching careers on their own,” according to a 1976 Antiques Journal article written during America’s Bicentennial.

At first, she studied oratory, but Sarah soon determined that artistic modeling was where she excelled. It is thought that her inspiration was derived from another Salem woman sculptor, Louisa Lander. Sarah became quite successful and sought-after for her ivory-finished or painted molds in shades of tan and brown.

It was said of her that “the merit of Sarah W. Symonds’ work is her choice of subject, her feeling for it, and the truth of her expression; she not only created but embalmed.”  Sarah continued working well into her eightieth year, and enjoyed great celebrity late in her life. (courtesy Salem Women's History)
Sarah opened her first studio in the John Ward House. Her second studio was located at One Brown Street. A gift shop followed at the Hawthorne Hotel, and eventually there was a summer shop in nearby Marblehead. Sarah was a skillful marketer, and advertised and filled orders herself. Her artistic reputation established, Sarah also created a line of mementos for tourists, including incense burners, witch-stirred caldrons, door knockers, and paper weights.

Celebrity collector Davis Love III.

Cast-Iron Collection: Davis Love III

Peter Frank Edwards

by 
Jed Portman - Georgia - August/September 2013
Courtesy Garden and Gun
 

One pro golfer’s passion for vintage cast-iron cookware

It all started with fried bologna. “When I was a kid, I had a fried bologna sandwich for lunch just about every day,” says the professional golfer and 2012 Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, standing over a stack of cast-iron skillets on a warm day at his home in St. Simons, Georgia. “And my mom always fried the bologna on cast iron.”
Eventually, Love’s mother, who grew up cooking with cast iron on a farm in North Carolina, taught her son to make his own sandwiches. Then Love got older, moved out, and got married. His mother gave him a couple of her skillets to use in his first kitchen.
That’s when his collection started, though he’s hesitant to label it that. “Collection assumes a strategy,” Love says. “This was just an interest. I’d see a pan in an antique store, or a friend would give me one.” Nonetheless, a collection began to take shape. A friend saw the cookware piling up and gave Love a book about Griswold and Wagner, two companies that dominated cast iron in the early and mid-twentieth century. After paging through it, Love started to look for specific pieces—Dutch ovens, waffle irons, skillets large and small.

“I wanted a skillet in each size,” he says. The typical cast-iron skillet might be a No. 8 or No. 9, big enough to fry a few slices of bologna at once, but not so big that the average cook can’t hoist it comfortably onto a stove top. Collectors look for the rarities, the tiny No. 2s and the giant No. 20s, which were produced in far smaller numbers than the rest. An antique No. 13, an awkward pan too large for a family but too small to feed a crowd, can go for two thousand dollars. Though Love has now spent nearly three decades collecting cast iron, he has yet to nab one of those.
Anyone can buy a new piece of cast-iron cookware, but Love has always preferred older pieces. “You feel that?” he asks, running his fingers over the surface of the skillet in his hands. “I just cleaned this pan from the forties. And that’s practically a nonstick surface.” Vintage skillets, he says, were better cast. He pulls out a newer, if equally well-used, skillet. The surface is grainy. “Typically, an older skillet is only worth about fifteen dollars. But if you clean and season it, it’ll last forever. You can cook on a pan that someone used in 1925. I think that’s really cool.”
Getting the rust off old cast iron isn’t easy. At first, Love used electrolysis. He would drop a skillet into a vat of water and baking powder, then shock it until he’d stripped it down to bare metal. Later, he moved on to Coca-Cola, which he’d used as a young golfer to get the tarnish off his copper clubs. Now he prefers a store-bought rust remover.
After the cleaning, of course, comes the seasoning. Everyone who cooks on cast iron has a slightly different method of curing it. Love’s is fairly relaxed. First, he rubs the cast iron with fat or shortening. Then he sets the oven to 200 degrees and lets his pieces sit in the heat for—well, until he remembers to take them out. “I come back sometimes,” says Love, “and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that pan’s been in there for three days.’”
But once that cast iron is seasoned, it lasts. The stacks of skillets, Dutch ovens, and other sundry pieces in Love’s arsenal might be marred by a few rust spots, but most of them display the smooth patina of well-loved cast iron, no small feat considering the scope of his collection. It helps that Love and his family still use the cookware. “My favorite thing to fry is still bologna,” he says. “And I fry a lot of country ham.” He points to a Griswold waffle iron that imprints miniature hearts in place of the usual honeycomb pattern. “Using that old waffle iron is a pain, but I’ll still do it just to show folks that you can.”
Several years ago, Love’s wife, Robin, put a stop to his collecting. He was piling up so many pieces that she’d begun to call it hoarding. But Love still keeps an eye out for one of those No. 13 skillets. And maybe a No. 20, he says, as he walks over to show off another piece.

From the "Here's something that I didnt know existed, but they make perfect sense" department.

Ginny's Antiques next door is a treasure trove of amazing items. We have been in this business a good long time but she has been in the same location for going on 30 years. She was a voracious buyer for years, before opening her own shop. Totally old school in the way she does everything. No internet sales, fair, but firm and high prices, extremely knowledgeable and TONS of inventory. You can read about Ginny and see her store here

We are very happy with our internet/social media presence and the results it has generated from our Etsy shop. It takes a lot of work, 4-6 hours per day probably. After tiring of hearing about the internet from me, Ginny has relented and we are helping her enter the 21st century world of online commerce.

Yesterday she brought over some items that I didnt even know existed. Cast iron mannequin shoes from the 1880's and 1890's. Free standing mannequins needed a heavy base so they wouldnt tip over, so these cast iron shoes solved the problem. They came in all styles in men's, women's and children's sizes. Here is an example of a child's size mannequin that sold a few years ago here. Note the cast iron shoes.

Collecting old mannequins is a totally different area of collecting that we wont discuss here but arent these shoes fun? They are not horribly expensive and fairly easy to find on all of the usual sites. Look for them too in your favorite local shop. Sometimes they may be described as something else such as a door stop or foundry salesman's sample, but now you know what they are. If the whole idea of mid-century and retro leaves you cold and unimpressed, and you would really like to collect antique objects instead of "vintage" then consider these cool "found-objects".

If you would like one from Ginny's collection, here is a single ladies size one in great old gold paint. It is available here 

Here is a delightful pair of children's size shoes in black. They have a foundry mark of Eleger and Sons and are available here

Industrial design, found objects, steampunk assemblage parts.

People all the time ask me about found objects as pieces of art. Look around, look at the world as a series of objects that while made for one purpose exhibit fine design elements. Things don't just magically appear, people design them.

Here is a great look at a 1940's industrial design studio.

We always have a great selections of these kinds of objects. They are sold for people to display or to re-purpose them into steampunk or other found object assemblages. Look at an objects sculptural appeal. Steampunk.

Here is a selection of items we have sold or have in stock now. Imagine the possibilities.