Looking for some help on this saw, not mine, but the owner was thinking of installing a new plate and restoring the handle. I thought I'd get more information for him before he takes it apart and makes it a user. Have a look at the photos. The Barber & Genn stamp on the back is the earliest listed in Barley's book at 1790. But according to the book, medallions weren't used until around 1820's. In fact, the oldest medallion in the book looks VERY similar to that on this saw. St. George slaying the dragon with the exception that this one reads "Royal Improved". I'm wondering if the knowledgeable folks here have any opinions on age and modifications made to this saw. Could the medallion be original, or it could have been a very old replacement for a broken screw? Or maybe the mark on the plate was used later than we think? Would the saw be worth saving as is, or is this common enough that he shouldn't feel too terrible making a user out of it?
Hey Kerry This is my opinion so you can take it for the little, opinions are worth. As I have said before, he owns the saw and he can do as he wishes with it. As Rob Paul said when it was represented on another forum, the medallion is very old and may have been added later. This is a 200 year old saw and there just aren't that many around.When you ask "is this common enough" the answer is NO. If the medallion was added 20 years later it is still part of the story. It has been well loved over the years and it needs to be retired. To add a new plate and restore the handle seems like a lot of time and effort on an artifact that will always look restored when a very functional and not so early a saw can be found easily. There are so few people out there that have the skills to restore this to what is appropriate it would never look right. For the few times anyone uses a saw now, to get that "traditional feeling" of sawing with a vintage saw there are a lot out there. In the grand scheme of things, I always consider myself just the custodian of some early saws and later it may be of interest to someone else to carry on the tradition. Offer a user if needed to help save the "old girl" . I have a feeling most members on this forum would agree with some of the opinions opined here. Enjoy Joe S.
Thanks for posting a very interesting saw, as previously noted it looks to be around 1790 ish, going by the mark on the spine. I'm curious about the medallion, it probably doesn't belong to the saw, since it features St George killing the Dragon, which was a popular design for coins, it's possible a coin collector might recognize it, if not a coin perhaps something like a pendant? I did a quick search for coins featuring George and the Dragon, but couldn't find any with the words "ROYAL" at the top. Anybody else got any ideas? I did note that some late 1800's Warranted Superior Medallions with St George and the Dragon were very similar, so maybe "ROYAL IMPROVED" is just a variant of that. The closest I found was an Ibbotson Bros, which had a medallion with "ROYAL IMPROVED" but the pictures don't show the medallion in sufficient detail. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/early-ibbotson-bros-brass-saw-127305177 Regards Ray
That particular George and Dragon design was initially created for an English gold sovereign coin first issued in 1817 under George III, so the saw medallion presumably post dates 1817. Saw medallions with this design include Samuel Hill (Simon dates as 1820), Ibbottson Bros (with "Royal Improved"), and Warranted Superior (my one dates to c1850). Since Ibbottson Bros took over Barber & Genn, it has been suggested that perhaps the medallion on this saw is original, post 1817, possibly made by Ibbottson after the takeover. If the medallion was a later addition to the saw, it might be possible to detect alterations to the handle if the saw was dis-assembled (not that I would recommend dis-assembly). There seem to be quite a few Barber & Genn saws around (I've even found a couple locally in Ontario), but one with an original medallion would be special.
Thanks Kiwi, great information, that Ibbotson "Royal Inproved" medallion is a great find. It makes it clear that the mystery medallion in question is in fact a saw medallion. I haven't found a date for the Ibbotson take over, but Thomas Barber left the partnership in 1810, leaving just Frank Barber and John Genn. So Ibbotson take over must post date that at least. Which still leaves us with the mystery medallion. The generic nature of the ROYAL IMPROVED with George and the Dragon, and the lack of any manufacturers identification seems odd, why not put "Barber & Genn" on the medallion? Is this an early version of the generic Warranted Superior? One wild guess is that maybe Ibbotson reworked old Barber and Genn stock inherited after the takeover, making up handles as required and selling them under the Barber & Genn mark with a generic medallion? So, the question remains, is the medallion original to the saw? if so, it probably dates the saw to after 1817, but probably not much later.
Not to be contrary, but since the date of this saw figures in our estimation, I believe the mark on the spine looks more like the 1820 example in BSSM than the 1790 example. The "t"'s in the 1790 mark have a very distinctive, fat upright that the 1820 mark does not have. This saw does not have those fat uprights and looks more like the 1820 example. The ampersand also looks more like the 1820 than the 1790, to my eye, although they're so close it's hard to make a call.
Kerry, Have you removed the medallion to look at the wood underneath? That might tell you something about when the large hole was drilled, if it's not as aged as, for example, the split nut on the rear. The wood around the medallion does have series of fresh missing chips along the top edge. Possibly they're there because the medallion came out once the nut on the back went missing. That might explain the chipping. Or the large hole could have been drilled recently.
David, this saw isn't mine, the photos were posted in the saws facebook group several months ago from someone thinking of restoring it to make it a user. I reached out and said it might be pretty valuable and asked here for more info to confirm. Here's the original post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/857101454366905/permalink/2947791371964559/