The Hammacher Schlemmer Chest Handle

Hammacher Schlemmer, ca 1902

Hammacher Schlemmer proudly points out they’ve been around since 1848, started printing catalogs in 1881, and are still going strong with them. But you won’t find this item in their current catalogs.

Up until the 1930s, they were strictly business – hardware, and lots of it. This catalog from about 1902 consists of page after page – hundreds of pages – of chests and drawers and filing cabinets and parts and more. I don’t know what’s more impressive -that someone produced a brass chest handle this impressively detailed, or that some overworked artist made such an impressive engraving of it. Zoom in to see the detail and spot the little “HS” watermark on the image, presumably there to keep people from copying it.