Having Plane
Dateca.1775-1790
Maker
Thomas Napier
1747 - 1812
MediumBeech, birch, iron, and steel
DimensionsLength: 9 7/16"; thickness: 7/8"
Credit LineGift of Thomas Elliott
Object number2024-304
DescriptionHaving plane with flat chamfers that end with a turn-out, a molded shoulder, and a birch wedge.Label TextFormally trained as a toolmaker in Scotland, Thomas Napier landed in Philadelphia in late 1774 and set up a planemaking shop. One of his first contracts was to supply a few "sundry" planes to James Stiles, a planemaker working in New York City, in December 1774. Napier's record during the Revolutionary War is scant, but he is listed as a member of the Philadelphia Militia. Advertising in the April 28, 1786 issue of the Pennsylvania Mercury, Napier boasts that he can offer "57 different types of planes," adding that he could make "any kind of plane to drawing or pattern, to the greatest exactness, the charge according to the work in them."
During the 1790s, Napier was looking for other ways to generate income, including a two-year stint in Wilmington, Delaware, where he tried his hand unsuccessfully at coopering. Back to Philadelphia he went in 1796, and tried his hand at the manufacture of pharmaceuticals by placing his "Napier's Pills" on the market. When he passed away in 1812, his estate was valued at about $500.
At least one of Napier's earliest, Scottish-made planes has been reported, but it carries a different mark to those known to have been used in Philadelphia.Mark(s)The toe of the plane marked with THOs.NAPIER in relief within a rectangle (Elliott, AWP, p.265, imprint A).ProvenanceFebruary 1995, purchased by Thomas Elliott (Westbrook, CT); 2024, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)
