Yesterday, my girl friend and I went antiquing in Lancaster County. The area got hit by the storm moving up the East coast and so we got pretty wet, being in and out of the car.
We had headed out on Tuesday evening, stayed overnight in Lancaster, had a nice dinner on the main square there and set off to Columbia in the morning to start our hunt.
Whilst we were strolling through one combined dealer shop I came across this lovely old wheelbarrow. I did not see the makers mark initially which is below. I loved the old paint, the strawberry leaf stencil on the side and the eight prong iron wheel. The sides lift off as well, so you can balance larger items on the floor of the barrow.
I have seen these before and they make great pieces for people to use filled with flowers, or possibly some holiday decorations.
The mark is from a Harrisburg company, Jackson Manufacturing Co, which was started in 1876 by one Caleb Jackson. He applied for multiple patents, I sound Like James Dray here. He realized that shovels and wheelbarrows were going to be important and concnetrated on manufacturing these. This is a Type, that word is a little rubbed, No 5 Garden Built For Service. It is in good condition and seems to have survived very well.
After a little negotiation we agreed upon a price with the seller and I then had to fit it in the new car. So glad I had my new car as the wheelbarrow was bigger than I thought and we had to drop seats, and move luggage around to fit it in.
I have done a little research, and the Jackson Manufacturing Company is still in existence, but now part of Ames since 1999 I believe. I think this dates from about 1880-90 and is in very good shape. I found some similar ones on line of different sizes, No 3 and No 4.
I need to get some chrysanthemums and hopefully if it stops raining get some photos in a garden setting tomorrow showing it off from different angles. I think I paid for my trip and made a small profit, but until it sells we will have to wait and see, Looking forward to putting it up on the website.
We didn't find anything else and actually lost interest as the weather was so bad, we got wetter and as we made our way through Lititz and some other towns as well.
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