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Unique original United States patent model for a heating stove (furnace). Hand crafted tin. Door at top opens. There are two functioning flues at the top and on the right pipe that are operated by small ring handles. Model comes with all of it’s patent tags, which were issued when the stove was first patented, and subsequently for reissues of the original. The patents were issued to Samuel B. Sexton of Baltimore, MD, and are from 1859, 1861, 1864 (3 diff.), 1867 and 1876. Glued to the backs of the 1876 patent card and an additional blank card is a printed image and description of the stove. By the time of the last patent in 1876, the patent office had modernized its operation by using printed rather than hand written descriptions. Stapled (on the back) to the first two patent cards is a 1940’s label that indicates the model was once the property of “The O. Rundle Gilbert U.S. Patent Model Collection” at Garrison-on-Hudson, New York.

A New Yorker magazine article in 1974 stated the following regarding O. Rundle Gilbert & his collection of antique patent models:

“In 1941 he bought just about all of the existing models inventors had submitted to the U.S. Patent Office in the 19th century for $2,500. It’s estimated there may have been 100,000 models. For a time the Patent Office had required the submission of a model with a patent application. Mr. Gilbert was an auctioneer based in Garrison in Putnam County, N.Y., and he hoped to make money selling these models at a much higher price than he had paid. He tried selling them to the Smithsonian Institution, but they had all the models they wanted. He managed to sell a few to a farmers’ museum. He tried to find the corporations that had actually used the inventions the models represented, but this proved too difficult. In 1971, one of his sons, Robert Wellington Gilbert sold a thousand models at an auction he held.”

This is an excellent example from THE original patent model collection, and a great piece of American folk art. Don’t get burned out on this one. You will never see another just like it.

Date: 1859.

Size: 9 1/4″ wide  x  5 1/2″ deep  x  7 3/4″ tall.

Condition: Overall excellent with expected aging and wear – see photos. Part of printed description is missing.

Price: $332

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