Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 302

Price Realized: $ 281
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
GET YOUR PHD: POST HOLE DIGGER (SCIENCE & ENGINEERING.) Wandle Mace's Patent Post Morticing and Rail Sharpening Machine. Illustrated circular letter, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, plus integral blank leaf with docketing; folds, minimal wear. [New York?], circa 1840
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This device was patented in New York in 1837, and if it worked as advertised, it would have been a gold mine. It could allegedly both sharpen a fence post AND dig the post hole. Wandle Mace discussed his invention in his autobiography; he sold the patent and erased a substantial debt, enabling him to emigrate to Illinois. There he became a prominent early Mormon who also helped build the Nauvoo Temple in 1846. None traced in OCLC, though Rutgers University holds an identically titled broadside which credits the printers as Craighead and Allen of New York, 1845.