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WantCanDo

Do ownership marks (provenance) affect mid/late 1800 and early 1900 value?

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Either etched or punched on the metal and/or carved in the wooden handles? If so, is the affect generally relative (negative or positive) depending on the owner's documented history in the trade/industry. Thanks...

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In my experience, no matter what the item is, a tool, a bowl, a glass ornament, if it has a maker's name or mark on it it will always fetch more money than an unmarked item. Rarely, an unmarked item but recognisable as from a certain maker will fetch more money than a similar marked piece. How much they fetch or are desired is simply down to the collector or end user, not often based on how famous the maker is or was.

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Thank you for your opinion - it’s very much appreciated. 

I find myself at a crossroad. I recently committed to learning leather upholstery with an emphasis on European autos. In this pursuit, I’ve managed to acquire, through a private family sale, an extensive toolset of an apparently highly regarded saddle maker from the mid-1900’s with most of his tools (head/round knives, pliers, punches, skivers, stamps, etc.) dating back prior to 1906. One of my dilemmas is whether to: use what I need, collect, display, donate, etc. I’m also researching the gentleman’s trade history and understand that he has saddles in several museums.

In this situation I feel strangely, yet emotionally, bound to the craftsman, his past, and the craft. It’s difficult to explain...

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39 minutes ago, WantCanDo said:

Te of my dilemmas is whether to: use what I need, collect, display, donate, etc. I’m also researching the gentleman’s trade history and understand that he has saddles in several museums.

Tools were made to be used.

I have several 1920s /  1930s Austin 7 cars. Over the years I've accumulated a load of old tools to work on them. Some are standard tools, some were specially made for working on the cars, some tools were made by famous tool makers and those tools are very collectible.  As tools I use them as they are needed for what they were intended to do

Use those tools. Thats what they were meant for

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I am assuming you are referring to ownership marks rather than the original maker marks. If not ignore what I am writing, if so - read on. 

Ownership marks are pretty common on the time frame you are describing. These workers generally provided their own tools, worked in shops or factories alongside other guys with the same tools, and needed to keep them identifiable. Personally I like ownership marks, that guy liked his tools well enough to get them back at the end of the day. names or hashmarks don't bother me at all. I have generally not had much pushback from customers buying old tools with ownership marks. There are a very few collectors I deal with who prefer they don't but those guys are counted on one hand. I'm going to say that a huge majority of these old tools and the markings cant be traced to a specific worker.  The Gomphs, HF Osbornes, Sauerbiers, and old CS Osborne tools were owned by workaday kind of guys whose names are not generally famous. Much like tracing a wrench to a specific guy who worked on the line at Ford in 1955, provenance is hard. If you have provenance on yours it won't hurt the value and can only help it. 

What is cool? When I have a few tools that are marked the same. Five years later and three states away I buy tools and here are more with the same owner's marking in that bunch. 

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Bruce,

Thank you for your opinion - also much appreciated. Yes, I was actually referring to ownership marks. 

I was intentionally coy regarding value - most presum or conclude that its monetary, not necessarily so. What about philanthropic value? For example, a simple analogy -  what's more valuable: a Leonardo da Vinci painting, a circa-1400 paint brush, or an actual brush that he used to paint Salvator Mundi?  It's a trick question.  The answer, I believe, is it depends - its just not always about the money...

Edited by WantCanDo

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