Small Hollow Plane
Dateca.1760-1780
Maker
Oliver Spicer
1726 - 1804
MediumBirch, iron, and steel
DimensionsLength: 9 3/8"; thickness: 3/4"
Credit LineGift of Thomas Elliott
Object number2024-318
DescriptionSmall hollow plane with flat chamfers that end with a sloped line and a lamb's tongue.Label TextOne of the first planemakers to work in Connecticut, Oliver Spicer was a cabinetmaker, whose 1804-dated estate inventory listed $20 worth of "Carpenter and Joiner tools." Plane making ran in his family, as his younger brother Able also engaged in the trade. The brothers are two of perhaps five or six plane making Spicers operating out of eastern Connecticut between the middle of the 18th century and about 1820.Also styled Captain, Oliver served as a Captain of a company of the 8th Connecticut Militia during the American Revolution. Spicer didn't live long enough to apply for a pension from the US Government for his military service, so we don't know more about his wartime activities. He now lies in the Allyn-Spicer Cemetery in Ledyard, beneath two tombstones; the original from 1804, and a modern white marble stone supplied by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.Inscription(s)Side of body inked with the size 1/2 (half inch).Mark(s)The toe of the plane marked with O:SPICER in relief within a conforming rectangle (Elliott, AWP, p.353, imprint B).ProvenanceJuly 2002, purchased by Thomas Elliott (Westbrook, CT); 2024, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)
