I was fortunate to visit with Herb Kean after the last Crafts board of directors meeting and see his collection. One piece stood out. The piece I was there to see. I had heard about it. I had read about it. The ivory headed, boxwood, German silver trimmed brace by John Booth & Son for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The one that received the highest honors. From an article that appeared in The Tool Shed: It is a signed American Sheffield-style plated brace (John Booth & Son, Philada.) with neck, plates, chuck, and head plug all German silver. It has decorative knurling on the silver, and decorative beading on the wood. The head is carved ivory! The internal mechanism in the neck is a patent that provides for no wobble or play when turning. AND, are you ready for this? The brace is made of gorgeous boxwood , without a check, knot or stain! Yes, I said boxwood, the Holy Grail of Sheffield-style braces, because the shrub almost never gets big enough to make a plated brace from it. After gathering credible information from Philadelphia brace collectors and the Smithsonian Institute, my considered opinion (along with others) is that this piece was an exhibition brace by John Booth & Son for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the largest World's Fair of its kind at that time. To give you a little background on the fierce competition amongst manufacturers at the time, let's go back to 1851 when American companies competed for the first time with England in the Crystal Palace Exposition in London. Some of our best in the tool making, gun making and machinery industries took on the world, and came away unexpectedly at the top!! This competitive attitude was maintained to even a greater degree when the top manufacturing countries in the world had a chance to show their stuff at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. With this caliber of competition, was it any wonder that two brace manufactures, in their home town of Philadelphia, were not going to let anyone from Europe beat them out? It would seem that John Booth and Edward Mills, each, wanted to be the one to show the world that the best brace was Made in U.S.A. There was a controversy about the awards given at the Centennial. There were many, many awards, but the standard of gold, silver and bronze for first, second and third place, was omitted! Each winning company received a large bronze medal, only mentioning a "general award" for their entire category display, not for any individual item. However, the Awards Committee in their Report of Awards put a short sentence under the firm's name that received the general award. This note seemed to describe the level of quality of the products that were submitted. Quoting from the Report on Awards for the category of Tools & Hardware: John Booth & Son, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. --- Commended as of the best quality and finish.

Click HERE to see the fully detailed article with sketches and technical proofs

You can also go to CRAFTSOFNJ.ORG, click on THE TOOL SHED and scroll down to the bottom and click on "My Finest Brace" by Herb Kean. Check out the rest of the CRAFTS web site after that!