Polhemus No.3 Triple

 

The early 1900's Hamilton was selling the Polhemus Type Cabinet.  The Triple was a huge type cabinet work station.  The front you'd pull your cases from and carry them around to the back side and compose your hand set type there. This setup would allow three to four people to work at setting type at this cabinet, having the composing area around back allowed others to pull cases from the front.  The name for the cabinet comes from a famous printer in New York by the name of John Polhemus, he is pictured below.  These cabinets were top of the line cabinets from Hamilton at this time, so having one of these in your shop was for sure a statement/status piece too.

            

This cabinet came form the driftless range in south western Wisconsin.  Every piece seems to have a story, and this item is no different.  Back in the early 70's the local small town print shop was closing up....the farmer a few miles outside of town decided he needed the type cabinet in the shop and purchased ONLY this piece.  Brought it home and set it up in his garage shop outside.  Over the years he used it just for the reason he bought it for.....while casting bullets his lead pot would run low and he needed more lead.  He's just go over to the Polhemus cabinet and get more hand set type and melt it down.  So there might be a bullet or two in a tree in that area of Wisconsin that use to be hand set foundry type!!!  This cabinet is huge and heavy, but a very nice save of a seldom seen type cabinet.  It is currently under restoration...so check back later for finished pictures.