Object number
51/109
Collection
Creator
Description
This chisel, shaped like a carpenter’s chisel, was used with a lathe to produce designs on a revolving piece of wood. This is a smoothing chisel, with the tip of the 2 inch wide blade sharpened on both sides. It belonged to a family of Chiltern chair bodgers from Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire. They used this tool for cleaning off the waists and circles on the beechwood chair parts. The shank is stamped with ‘W. Marples & Sons, Cast Steel’ and with the firm’s trade mark of three leaves of clover.
Physical description
1 firmer chisel; wood and metal [brass and steel]; good condition
Label Text
8. Lathe tool - chisel. Nineteenth century chisel that belonged to Sam Rockall's father and uncle, who were chair leg makers in the village of Turville Heath, Buckinghamshire. The chisel was used to create the pattern of groves and ridges seen on the chair legs. 51/109.
Archival history
MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/109 // NAME: LATHE TOOL // NEG NO.: 35/146, 35/856 // STORAGE: '
Production date
1800-01-01 - 1899-12-31
Production period
Nineteenth century
Object name
Material
Associated subject
Associated person/institution
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\35 series negatives\Scans\35_146.tif - High resolution image
