September 19, 2004
Presented herewith are several illustrations of a wooden blue-painted C. DREW & CO. display stand measuring 6-1/2" x 10" x 1-3/4". This display stand was recently offered on Ebay by Rick Floyd of Newport, ME. Although there is no clue on the stand indicating what type of C. DREW tool was displayed, it can reasonably be inferred by similar stands made out of metal offered by C. DREW in 1959 that the stand was made and used for the display of cold chisels. A metal label on the front side of the stand gives the company name and location. From this we can infer that the stand dates no earlier than 1931, which was the year C. DREW was incorporated. By merit of the fact that C. DREW was offering metal display stands for cold chisels in 1959, it is probably reasonable to infer that this wooden stand was produced in an earlier year.
Figure 1, Photo courtesy of Rick Floyd
If the front side of the display stand is judged to have the metal label as illustrated above, then the right side of the stand has the size and pricing information.
Figure 2, Photo Courtesy of Rick Floyd
The size and pricing information appear on a tan paper label (originally white?) on the right side of the stand as illustrated in figures 2 and 3. The information was originally presented in blue ink using a sans serif printer's font. Although the size information (presumably indicating the cold chisel bit width) is still clear, the original price information was largely obliterated when the merchant who used the display stand updated the pricing code using a black marker. By merit of the fact that the prices on average are higher than the prices published for cold chisels in C. DREW's January 15, 1959 price list (Catalogue No. 59), it is reasonable to infer that this display stand may have been used into the 1960s, and possibly later.
The sizes and prices are herewith transcribed: 1/4" ($0.60) -- 5/16" ($0.66) -- 3/8" ($0.80) -- 7/16" ($0.85) -- 1/2" ($0.88) -- 5/8" ($0.99) -- 3/4" ($1.32) -- 7/8" ($1.86) -- 1" ($2.14).
figure 3, Photo Courtesy of Rick Floyd
figure 4, Courtesy of Rick Floyd
As can be seen from figures 3 and 4 above, nine different sizes of cold chisels were offered. The six smaller sizes were arrayed in rows of six, while the three largest were arrayed in rows of four.
Figure 5, from C. DREW catalogue No. 59, January 15, 1959
Figure 5, gives a general indication of what the display stand would have looked like with chisels displayed. This photo indicates that the display stand might have been placed on the shelf with the left side of the stand facing outwards to enable puchasers to easily remove chisels of any desired size from the display.