Dado Plane
Dateca.1822-1830
Maker
Isaac Field
1781 - 1860
MediumBirch, iron, and steel
DimensionsLength: 10"; width of body: 1 1/8"
Credit LineGift of Thomas Elliott
Object number2024-278
DescriptionDado plane with rounded chamfers on top, and flat chamfers which end in a turn-out on the toe and heel ends, with a wood depth-stop secured by a side screw.Label TextApprenticed to master planemaker Joseph Fuller as early as 1796, Isaac Field took over the business when Fuller died in 1822. By 1824, he is listed as a toolmaker in the Rhode Island Directory, operating out of his shop at 138 Westminster St., Providence. By 1844, Field had relocated to 64 Pine St., by which point his son Isaac, Jr. had likely taken over the business.Issac Sr.'s relationship with Fuller was more than just business. As a childless man, top apprentices were treated more like sons by Fuller, who transferred land to Field in 1808 and left the business, and its inventory, to Field upon his death.
The earliest styled planes which carry Field's mark are of the exact form as the later planes which bear Fuller's mark, suggesting that all of them were made by the former. The PROVIDENCE stamp used by Field is the same tool used to strike the location on Fuller's planes.Mark(s)ISAAC•FIELD above PROVIDENCE in relief within weakly serrated rectangles, is struck into the toe (Elliott, GAWP 5th ed., p.127, imprint A1). Heel struck with the owner's mark of J.R within a serrated rectangle with rounded corners.ProvenanceFebruary 1991, purchased by Thomas Elliott (Westbrook, CT); 2024, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)
