3 Antique Cast Sad Irons

THREE ANTIQUE CAST IRON SAD IRONS - MRS POTTS DOUBLE-POINTED BASE, COLEBROOKDALE IRON CO. BOYERTOWN PA. IRON WITH ORIGINAL DETACHABLE WOOD HANDLE, AND A WIRE-HANDLE FLAT IRON A genuinely good little grouping of nineteenth and early twentieth century laundry irons, and two of the three carry readable foundry marks. The best of the three is a COLEBROOKDALE IRON CO. / BOYERTOWN PA. U.S.A. sad iron of the double-pointed Mrs. Potts pattern, complete with its original curved wooden bentwood handle, iron yoke, and turned wood latch knob - the detachable cool-handle design that made these irons famous. Beside it is a second double-pointed iron base cast MRS POTTS SAD IRON around the top, sold without a handle but with the same slotted latch bed, meaning the wooden handle from the Colebrookdale iron appears to fit it and the two can be displayed as a working set the way a laundress actually used them, one on the stove while the other worked. The third is a classic wedge-shaped cast iron flat iron with a heavy wire bail handle and a turned black grip, unmarked. These display beautifully on a shelf, a mantel, or a laundry-room wall, and they are still the best bookends and doorstops ever cast. The Mrs Potts base is heavily rusted and has no handle. All three show rust, pitting, and old use, and none has been cleaned or restored. Sold as a lot of three irons - one with its wood handle, one base without a handle, and one wire-handle flat iron. Description Colebrookdale Iron Co. sad iron with detachable wood handle - cast iron double-pointed sad iron body of the Mrs. Potts form, pointed at both ends and swelling at the middle, fitted with a curved laminated or bentwood handle in a natural blond finish, mounted in a black-painted iron yoke, with a small turned wood knob operating the spring latch on top. Marks quoted verbatim: raised lettering cast around the top of the body reading COLEBROOKDALE IRON CO. on one side and BOYERTOWN PA. U.S.A. on the other. The sole is smooth, dark, and slightly convex with no marks visible on the underside, so none is claimed there. Handle-to-table height measures approximately 5.5 to 6 inches and the body approximately 5 to 6 inches long per the tape-measure photographs. In every measuring frame the tape either lies flat on the oak table in front of the iron or stands alongside it rather than being hooked to the piece, so all of these figures are close estimates only, and the body's width and thickness were never measured. Mrs Potts sad iron base, no handle - cast iron double-pointed iron body of the same detachable-handle pattern, with the twin slotted openings and raised latch bed on top where the wooden handle clamps, and two raised rivet or screw bosses at the points. Marks quoted verbatim: raised lettering cast around the top reading MRS POTTS on one side and SAD IRON on the other. Measures approximately 7 inches long and roughly 4 inches wide per the tape-measure photographs, standing roughly 1.5 to 2 inches thick. The tape lies flat on the table across and alongside the piece rather than hooked on its edge in both frames, so these are close estimates only. This piece has NO wooden handle and none is included beyond the one mounted on the Colebrookdale iron. Whether that handle fits and latches securely on this base was NOT tested and is NOT guaranteed. Wire-handle cast iron flat iron - solid one-piece cast iron flat iron of the traditional wedge or shield form, pointed at the front and squared at the heel, with a raised stepped rim around the sole, fitted with a heavy round wire bail handle rising from two cast posts and carrying a turned, ringed grip in black. Sole length measures approximately 6 inches and overall height to the top of the grip approximately 5 to 5.5 inches per the tape-measure photographs. In both frames the tape lies on the table in front of or beside the iron rather than hooked to it, so both figures are close estimates. No maker mark, foundry name, size number, or weight number is visible anywhere on this iron in the photographs, so none is claimed. It may carry a faint mark under the rust that the camera did not pick up; bidders should not assume one. Photographed on a dark oak table against a white wall. Nothing else appears in these frames; the three irons pictured are the entire lot. The Milwaukee tape measure is a photographic reference only and is NOT included. Description of the marks and background Attribution note The double-pointed detachable-handle form seen on two of these three irons is the design patented by Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa, who received United States patent 103,501 on May 24, 1870 and patent 113,448 on April 4, 1871 for improved sad irons, the second covering the detachable curved wooden handle that let a user keep several iron bodies heating on the stove and move one cool handle among them, according to United States patent records and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The two pointed ends let the user press in