Arthur Price Mahogany Infill Shoulder Plane

Filed under: Price, Shoulder Planes
Tagged: Annealed Iron, Arthur Price, Mahogany Infill, Shoulder Plane

Description

A very nice, and clean, example of an annealed iron and mahogany shoulder plane by Arthur Price of London. Both the plane and the 1" wide iron are marked "A. PRICE, LONDON", with "1" marked on both the iron and the mahogany bed of the plane, matching them together.

"UNBREAKABLE" is stamped on the heel, denoting that the cast iron has been annealed to make the plane more durable.

Infill planes by Arthur Price are not common at all - in fact many collectors haven't even heard of him. His legacy, however, is an important one as far as British planemaking goes.

Considered as "the last of the old guard" of the traditional infill plane makers, Arthur Price was still working well into the 1960's, producing high quality shoulder planes and bullnose planes. These planes, like the one featured here, were cast in either steel or gunmetal -- the gunmetal ones having a steel sole, sweated on, like many of the upmarket planes of past years.

Price worked from two simultaneous locations in London. The first at 63 Carlton St., Kentish Town from 1934 to 1965, and the second in 140 Crest Rd, Cricklewood from 1924 to 1967. I'm unsure if both of them were factory locations or whether one of them was a workshop at his home, however both are listed as his premises.

A handbill from around 1950 was reprinted in TATHS Newsletter No. 10, which featured his shoulder and bullnose planes, as well as unfinished castings that the buyer could finish themselves. It has been reported that Arthur Price also made wooden planes though, to my knowledge, none have turned up as yet.

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