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B&D-73
Price: $70.00 plus shipping
This well
made brace is laid out exactly like the early malleable-iron frame Spofford
braces made by John S. Fray, but the split-frame chuck is
adjusted by a sleeve engaging a threaded member embedded in the frame
instead of by the usual thumbscrew.
This brace's
maker's mark:
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Typical John S. Fray &
Co. mark:
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Nelson Spofford's March
23, 1880 patent covers the method of coring the split in the making
of the original casting and would indeed apply to the present brace.
In the bottom image on the left,the shape of this brace (on the top)
is compared with a regular
Spofford brace made by John S. Fray & Co.
(below). The two wrist handles are nearly exactly the same size &
shape, but with differing widths of their cast-in-place pewter rings (see
another Fray brace here) but the present brace's casting shape is
better integrated with the shape of the handle than are the Fray-made
brace's frames.
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John S. Fray's patent No. 219,574 was granted six months before Spofford's March, 1880 patent
for the cored split-jaw interior, yet there is no patent date marked on
the brace. The sliding threaded part B in Figure 3 of the patent
drawing exactly matches the shape and function of the brace part's
inclined planes, and Figure 2 in the patent recalls the shape of the
brace's jaws.
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