Moseley chisel trademark?

[JohnPW]

Hello,

I've just bought this small chisel, width is just over 2mm (I don't know what's that in inches). It's stamped CAST STEEL on one side and MOSELEY on the other. After the "Moseley" there's a trademark, is it a trident, or maybe an anchor? Or a crown?

The bolster has the shape of a flattened octagon.

I guess Moseley is a fairly common name but is this Moseley same as the plane maker John Moseley & Son? And did they use a trademark?

I've had a look at Moseley planes and they only seem to use a name stamp but no trademark. The only pic of a Moseley & Son chisel/gouge/carving tool I can find has a plain name stamp and no trademark.

 

[AndyT]

Nice chisel!

Moseley were a big London maker/seller of a huge range of tools, and were in business for a long time. They claimed to have started in 1730. The plane making business was sold to Marples in 1892 and Marples continued to offer tools marked with the Moseley name well into the twentieth century.

Simon Barley mentions use of the crown in his book on saws, saying that it was used very widely on saws, either singly or in threes, but never formally meant anything and was not a quality standard.

The Sheffield register of trade marks for 1919 lists 21 makers with crowns in their trade marks, but the entries for "MOSELEY & SON" and "JOHN MOSELEY & SON" did not include it.

So, I think - but cannot prove - that the mark was not part of a registered mark belonging to Moseley, but was just something that was put onto steel tools to reassure the customer that they had bought a goodun. :wink:

 

[JohnPW]

Thanks.

In the 1938 Marples catalogue, there isn't a trademark for John Moseley & Son but there is for Thomas Ibbottson, and of course there's one for Marples. That could be evidence that John Moseley & Son has never had a trademark, or at least not a registered one.

Or it could be the Moseley chisel is not connected with John Moseley & Son, note no first name and "& Son". Or it was from before there was a son.

Here's an interesting link:
https://londonstreetviews.wordpress.com ... ol-makers/

 

[JohnPW]

I found this pic of a W. Marples gouge with a crown logo.



That could be a mid 19th C or older tool, possibly before W. Marples became W. Marples & Sons.

 

[JohnPW]

I've found a Sheffield edge tool maker with the name Moseley:

Moseley, George (Edge Tool Makers).
Residing at 29 Nursery Street, in 1828-9.
Recorded in: Pigot's Commercial Directory - 1828 to 1829.

Moseley, George (Edge tool manufacturer).
Residing at 17 Spring Street, in 1833.
Recorded in: Whites History & Directory of Sheffield - 1833.

Moseley, Geo (Edge tool and block print and fancy lathe tool manfr).
Residing at 17 Spring Street, in 1837.
Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham - 1837.

Moseley, George (Edge tool maker(s)).
Residing at Workhouse Lane, Sheffield in 1846.
Recorded in: Slaters 1846 Directory, Sheffield.