Joseph

I'm inclined to agree with your assessment of the ubiquitous Eagle. It  
looked good, was accepted as a symbol and so found it's way into all  
kinds of products and signage. I lean towards it's use, and even the  
number of stamps per tool, as a function of 'hey if it looks good  
once, why not do a few more?'

Gary

Gary Roberts
toolemera@m...
http://toolemerablog.typepad.com/
http://toolemera.com/

On Feb 16, 2008, at 11:39 AM, Joseph Sullivan wrote:

Friends:

Must say up front that I don't know why any particular maker put an  
eagle
stamp on any particular tool.  However, I can shed some light on the  
eagle
from another direction.  I was once the President of a state-wide
association of collectors of historical artifacts and archival  
material here
in Texas.  Have also through other connections, spent a lot of time  
not just
in museums, but with white gloves on in their vaults.  And I have a  
modest
collection of cavalry-related artifacts myself.  Here are a few
observations:

1)  That is very clearly a 19th century American eagle.  The 18th  
century
version was a bit more graceful and bent differently, and the 20th  
century
versions were first straighter and then more stylized

2)  That eagle was used all over the place on things with no  
connection at
all to tools.  I think it was just a patriotic expression of no special
significance beyond that

3) The federalism debate had pretty much been settled in the  
constitutional
convention, although other issues of states rights were not settled and
flared up again in the Late Unpleasantness of the 1860s and bubbled  
right
through the 1960s

4) As the federal government itself used that eagle or versions  
thereof, and
lots of other folks did, too, it is very unlikely that the eagle  
symbolized
any particular position in a political debate

5) Pure conjecture here, but it seems unlikely that a businessman would
intentionally mark his product with a symbol that could alienate part  
of his
prospective base of customers.

Joseph Sullivan

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