For sale is a restored antique STANLEY ADJUSTABLE WOOD & BRASS LEVEL. This cherry wood level measures about 28 inches in length with brass metal end caps. Two of the glass vials are intact with fluid and air bubble. One of the three glass vials are missing. This level was made by the Stanley Rule & Level Company. The top brass plate is marked with a June 23, 1896 patent date. Both circular brass adjustment caps are marked with a March 25, 1890 patent date. The wood on this antique level has been refinished and the brass plates polished. The level looks great from all angles. A premium collectible vintage tool.
In the United States, the words “tools and hardware” and “Stanley” are almost synonymous. The company began modestly in 1843, when Frederick T. Stanley founded a door-hardware company in New Britain, Connecticut. In 1857, Henry Stanley, Frederick’s cousin, launched the Stanley Rule and Level Company, which acquired Leonard Bailey & Co. in 1878. Bailey held numerous patents on such mainstay tools as planes, which Stanley Rule and Level augmented with mitre boxes, rulers, hand drills, hammers, and, of course, its lines of wood and iron levels. By 1920, the two Stanley firms merged.
