Child's Tool Chest

PeriodCirca 1900

Place MadeNew York, New York, U.S.A.

MediumPine, oak, maple, steel, iron

Dimensions7 × 16 × 8 in. (17.8 × 40.6 × 20.3 cm)

Inscribed"No. 105"

ClassificationsToys & Games

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1942

Object number1698

Description"The Boy's Delight" tool chest, containing 25 assorted tools.
Curatorial RemarksTool chests and kits became popular items for children in the last quarter of the 19th century. The American Tool Chest Company, owned and operated by New Yorker John H. Patrick (1837-1914) was a relatively small firm. Patrick was in the hardware industry from his late teens, and apparently put his skills to use in developing and marketing kits for boys, teens, and young men. A number of companies, both traditional toy firms as well as hardware firms, offered kits and chests stocked with small-sized tools. This kit, made between 1880 and 1900, includes a sturdy oak chest with well-fitted finger-type joints and a removable compartmented tray. The lid, which includes a badly faded but complete inner label, is held closed by a simple swing hook and loop. Twelve tools are included in the chest, including a mallet, block plane complete with steel blade and stop wedge, a ruler, a three-piece woodworker's clamp, a saw and miter box, a flathead screwdriver, an awl, an mortise scribe gauge, a 90 degree corner angle, an edge angle, and a steel carpenter's square. Although designed and built for smaller hands, the tools from the American Tool Chest Company were all fully functional and able to produce simple woodworking projects. The company offered their tool kit products for prices ranging from one to five dollars.NotesThis well-appointed tool chest was made by the American Tool Chest Company of New York. The company appears to have been founded by John H. Patrick. John's older brother, James Patrick (1833-1887) was connected to Richmond, Patrick & Co., a hardware company with offices in New York City and San Francisco. John Patrick was noted as the president of the American Tool Chest Company in his 1914 obituary. John H. Patrick married Cecelia Osborn in 1858, and the couple had at least eight children. In his obituary, it was mentioned that Patrick "had been associated with the hardware business since 1856." John Patrick's company appears to have been located at 200 West Houston Street at the time of his death. A 1902 newspaper article noted that The Patrick family lived at 50 Edgecombe Avenue in New York City. A short notice appeared in the 18 October 1908 issue of the New York Times, detailing the fiftieth wedding anniversary of John and Cecelia, noting that the couple had been married in the Mariners' Church in Catharine Street, New York, on 14 October 1858, and that four of their seven children survived to adulthood. At his death, John Patrick left a considerable estate to his wife and son of $35,149. For a time, his son John Jr. worked in the firm as secretary.

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