Need help on this engraved British reel

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Richard Lodge
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Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Richard Lodge »

I've never posted photos on this part of the board but I was so psyched when I bought this engraved brass reel I wanted to share it and see if any of you more mechanically prescient folk can shed light on who might have made it and whether the internal mechanism is common or unusual. The best part, for me, is the last photo. The reel is engraved with a name and address in London of a man, I believe, was a doctor who died in the mid-1800s.
Anyway, I welcome all speculation and knowledge. Thank you, folks!
Richard
First, here's what the reel looks like. The end plate is 1 7/8" wide and the reel is about the same distance across the pillars.

Image

Here's the insides, or what us grammarians call "the guts."

Image

The gear attached to the crank handle is shown here. Clearly a hand-cut gear.

Image

The foot, attached with 5 pins, shown here.

Image

And my favorite, the engraving. Beautiful script, isn't it?

Image
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Brian F.
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Brian F. »

Very cool reel, Richard!
Aloha
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Paul M
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Paul M »

Well, Richard, the "guts" of your specimen are almost identical to those of my Ustonson, less a scribe mark. I posted pics of that and a similar looking unmarked reel here, last summer http://reeltalk.orcaonline.org/viewtopi ... son#p85989, including pics of the interiors. There may have been a wire restraining the two foot pins in your example. I have been wondering if Onesimus Ustonson made these very early multipliers or if the Ustonson name and shop location were engraved on trade reels made by others. The mechanisms on mine are very fine. The mechanisms on both of my reels shown are high precision and were made by someone who had the skills of a watchmaker.

Double check the foot bridge for a maker's mark, just in case. The foot on my Ustonson is an ancient replacement but the footbridge has the "U".
Paul Manuel

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Reeltyme

Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Reeltyme »

A nice example Richard. Sweet and simple!
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Mike N
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Mike N »

Absolutely great reel, Richard.

Here is a little something on "Dowgate Hill," London:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowgate

Since you mentioned Smith was a doctor, I assume you found this listing:

Last edited by Mike N on Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mike N
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Mike N »

Richard:

I think I found your predecessor owner, which also helps date the reel:





According to this forum discussion, pre-1824 Ustonson reels were unmarked.

https://classicflyrodforum.com/forum/vie ... 72&t=32599
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Richard Lodge
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Richard Lodge »

Thanks for all the info, Mike. I was focusing on the Wm. Smith who died in 1848. It's funny, with such a common name, it's that "2 Dowgate Hill" that really helps nail down this research. Without that we'd be casting in the dark (which I'm pretty good at, but I don't catch many fish when I do that).
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Steve
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Steve »

Mike, IDing the owner was a magical feat. Kudos!

Richard, in my humble opinion, the reel's guts look pretty much like most British reels' guts from them thar days. A number of folks made reels that resembled Ustonson products. (See Reel News, Nov., 2002, pg. 4, for example.) Here are guts in one of my reels and in a friend's reel with an inscribed date of 1835:
According to this forum discussion, pre-1824 Ustonson reels were unmarked.
That's not quite holy writ. According to Tom Kerr, the poster in that forum,
"I don't think the earliest rods or reels were marked at all. The "U" may have come into favor at some point during those years. The scripted markings came into common practice much later around 1816 to 1824."
(Kerr, T.C., Early American Rods and Rodmakers, 2015, pg. 18)
The mechanisms on both of my reels shown are high precision and were made by someone who had the skills of a watchmaker.
Hmmm...sounds a lot like what Graham Turner used to say about early British multipliers. And yet:
"...of all the nuisances fishermen ever encountered, a multiplying reel is the most insufferable."
(anonymous, "An Autumn in the North," Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, No. 58, Oct., 1834, p. 490)
"...multiplying reels are condemned by all experienced anglers."
(James Dalziel Dougall, Salmon and Trout Angling. Glasgow: John Macleod, 1843, pg. 10)
"These wheels, from their intricacy, and consequent liability to derangement, were the constant source of annoyance to all who used them."
(G.P.R. Pulman, The Vade-Mecum of Fly-Fishing for Trout. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1851, p. 80)

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Richard Lodge
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Richard Lodge »

Thanks for the input, Steve.
I loved this line: "These wheels, from their intricacy, and consequent liability to derangement..."
Sounds like the click in this reel in the photos. Works great in one direction, jams up in the other direction.
That quote also sounds like a couple of sports cars I had in my youth, too.
:bricks:
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Paul M
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Paul M »

I showed my unmarked example to one of my "friends" a few years ago, who started winding faster and faster, thrilled to hear and feel the rich purring of the reel... until it stopped! I was pretty upset assuming that she had broken the spring but it was only last summer that I decided to open them up to compare innards. I was very relieved to find that the screw holding the extra-long clicker tongue had become loose and that allowed the tongue to jump the spring but everything was intact. I was so glad to put it back on my shelf in working order! I never really considered how one of these would perform when used for fishing. I won't be testing it at the Branson Chateau fishing contest :)

Paul M
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Steve
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Re: Need help on this engraved British reel

Post by Steve »

"...the click in this reel in the photos. Works great in one direction, jams up in the other direction."
"...the extra-long clicker tongue had become loose..."
Deranged tongues...something most of our politicians have.

Steve Vernon
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Book: ANTIQUE FISHING REELS, 2nd Ed.
Websites:
Antique Fishing Reels
Kopf reels
Hendrick reels

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
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