🔎 UNIDENTIFIED I found a Jewellers anvil.

[Urien of Rheged]

But have no clue as to its age. Found on arable in Lancashire England.
I was mystified by it at first not even knowing jewellers anvils where/are a thing.
From the small amount of research I've done so far it seems these things have been in use for millenia.
Rhis has been cast and is a copper based alloy. It's hollowed which I believe was so it could be mounted onto something when working.
Any help would be greatly appreciated folks.

 

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[Almy]

I've not heard of them before, either. It has no holes to fasten it to a bench top. Maybe it sits on a stub sticking out of the bench top? Just sitting on a surface, I would expect it to skitter around and tip when trying to use it.

 

[BennyV]

But have no clue as to its age. Found on arable in Lancashire England.
I was mystified by it at first not even knowing jewellers anvils where/are a thing.
From the small amount of research I've done so far it seems these things have been in use for millenia.
Rhis has been cast and is a copper based alloy. It's hollowed which I believe was so it could be mounted onto something when working.
Any help would be greatly appreciated folks.

Cool!

 

[AU Seeker]

I have never seen a hollow jeweler's anvil, all I have ever seen were solid, and most with very few exceptions were cast iron, I don't think a hollow one would work very well, the striking surface would be too thin and could possibly break/crack in use IMHO.

 

[pepperj]

But have no clue as to its age. Found on arable in Lancashire England.
I was mystified by it at first not even knowing jewellers anvils where/are a thing.
From the small amount of research I've done so far it seems these things have been in use for millenia.
Rhis has been cast and is a copper based alloy. It's hollowed which I believe was so it could be mounted onto something when working.
Any help would be greatly appreciated folks.

That's a really cool recovery, congrats.

Though just a thought, I'm thinking that it might be a salesman sample. Something to show a blacksmith the different models the foundry casted. It would sure beat lugging around 150-250 lb steel anvils.

 

[Urien of Rheged]

It has no holes to fasten it to a bench top. Maybe it sits on a stub sticking out of the bench top?

Sorry that's what I was trying nit very well at expressing when I said it could be mounted onto something.

 

[Timbermaster]

That’s a new one for me. Never heard of a jeweler’s anvil. That’s why I love this place! The neat things that turn up around the world. As far as metal detecting goes, I can’t think of a much better place than England!
Timber

 

[Urien of Rheged]

That’s a new one for me. Never heard of a jeweler’s anvil. That’s why I love this place! The neat things that turn up around the world. As far as metal detecting goes, I can’t think of a much better place than England!
Timber

Lol. Had to laugh at that "as far as" part 😆
But yes I feel at least fortunate for some things and the detecting potential is certainly one of them.
An example of this I'll show you right now. My detecting buddy pulled up this denarius yesterday here in Lancashire England. It's date is a staggering 145BC nearly 300 years before the Roman occupation reached this far north and 370 after the initial invasion of the island.
It was antique when it was lost !

 

[beepbleep]

Neat find. I bet they were more useful dissipating the heat while working jewelry instead of pounding on it.

 

[Urien of Rheged]

Neat find. I bet they were more useful dissipating the heat while working jewelry instead of pounding on it.

Getting any kind of idea on its potential age though is proving to be a challenge. If it's pre 20th century then I can't see travelling salesmen in a provincial rural backwater like Lancashire would have been a thing.

I do reckon it was used as an anvil. It's not as if the thing needs to be that hard for working small items of gold silver and copper, surely?
But without any idea of a date speculation is pretty moot.

I'm not actually sure what it's made from either weighing in at 68 grams and it also looks like it was once coloured gold looking closely at those yellowy spots

 

[Tesorodeoro]

It’s odd that most of them are rough cast (be it out of aluminum or iron).
I’d expect finely filed/polished surfaces if I was working with jewelry.

If they were promotional, they would have a brand name or logo cast into them.

Not all of them are weighted or have provisions for mounting them on a table.

I’m wondering if they could have been used in sewing clothing or leatherwork where you would set snap buttons or peen over the feet of decorative dodads or maybe copper rivets?

They are collectible so I might have some info on them in some reference books. If I get around to it, I’ll post an update here.