Scanning Around With Gene: Eyelets, Grommets, and Puttees

Gene Gable

I love anonymous art, particularly of the industrial kind. So while today’s installment may not appeal to everyone, I found the material strangely compelling. I imagine rows of artists working with airbrushes churning out drawing after drawing of small metal parts of every shape and style, each of the thousands of images a small triumph in its own right.
At the time of these images, the Edwin B. Stimpson Company (established in 1852) was in Brooklyn, New York. Today, the company still makes small metal parts of every sort and style, but it has relocated to Pompano Beach, Florida. Click on any image for a larger version.



These first images are from a 1939 edition of the Stimpson catalog, which shows not only the various parts and machines the company made, but the factory and showroom. While we may take grommets, hooks, rivets, and snap fasteners for granted, they represented considerable commerce for Stimpson.




A puttee, by the way, is a leg wrapping used by soldiers in World War I (and by others, I assume). I’m not sure where the metal part comes in; it may have something to do with adhering the puttee to the leg.



Stimpson not only makes the metal parts, but at least in this era, it made the machines to adhere these parts to various items.


Over the years, which for these images runs from 1939 to 1966, the Stimpson Company had various letterheads, as well.





By the 1960s, the company added color to the drawings, though it appears the base art was still black and white, with color overlays applied to add variety. I can only imagine the printers cutting masks by hand to add colors to these drawings.



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