I have yet to see a wall-hung tool chest that gives me a tingling feeling in my no-no square. (That is the mark of good design.)
But this chest comes the closest.
This is a page from the 1907 tool catalog of Tiersot, a French ironmonger founded in 1865. The catalog itself is a wonderful trip to a time when hand tools and machines occupied equal space in the pages of catalogs. You can download the enormous catalog here, courtesy of Jeff Burks.
This tool cabinet, which cost the impressive sum of 400 Francs, is fairly well-equipped and organized. I wish I had a better scan to share.
— Christopher Schwarz
No-No Square?
The try square is located at the top of the right hand door.
Hah, I thought you were commenting that you could not locate the square in the tool cabinet engraving (because the scan is so poor). After re-reading the post I understand the question. I believe the “No-No Square” is from the Kentucky version of Feng shui.
It’s from a chant taught to girls in Kentucky:
Stop, don’t touch me there
Cause this is my No-no square
And no means no!
It’s a lot more fun to see the dance that goes with it. Price of the dance: Three beers.
Is that a piggin (small coopered bucket with a handle) lower left in the center compartment? What’s that for? Water to keep the sharpening stones wet?
I wouldn’t want a wet bucket stored in with my tools. Insta-rust!
The catalog lists that item as:
1 bigorne polie montée sur pied de 18 cm
It is a small polished anvil mounted to a heavy round base. Something like this photo I dug up, only taller and better quality. It is difficult to distinguish because the anvil horn is pointed at the illustrator.
http://www.carpentryarchive.org/images/bigorne.jpg
As best I can tell, 400 Francs in 1907 is equivalent to approximately $2160 today, per this French inflation calculator (http://france-inflation.com/calculateur_inflation.php) and the current Euro->dollar conversion rate. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!
Go ahead and order it then!