Very Early Spiers Mahogany Infill “Pannel” Plane

A very early, screw sided, first pattern panel plane made by Stewart Spiers for Moseley & Son in London. It’s not an unusual practice for one planemaker to manufacture planes for another maker or retailer, and Spiers, Norris, Slater and others have all done it at one stage or another. In fact it’s possible that Spiers supplied all of the big retailers very early on.

The stamp, which would have been applied by Moseley & Son or perhaps by Spiers on behalf of Moseley, reads “MOSELEY & SON, NEW ST COVT GARDEN, LONDON”, which dates it from between 1838 to around 1861. It has been applied, upside down (or right way up if you’re looking at it from the point of using it at the time), on the toe of the mahogany infill. It should be noted that there are no owners marks on the plane at all.

As mentioned earlier, this is Stewart Spiers’s first model panel plane. A similar plane is illustrated in Stewart Spiers brochure of c1851-1858, where it is referred to as a “pannel plane”. It measures 13-1/2″ in length and 2-3/4″ wide. Both the toe and the heel are enclosed, rather than open as found on later planes. The infill has been overstuffed, as would be expected on a plane of this age. Spiers planes with mahogany infills are uncommon and, at the proposed time of the brochure, they cost slightly less than those planes with a rosewood infill.

The 2-1/2″ wide cutting iron is a Moulson Brothers replacement as the original iron would, most likely, have been a tapered one (probably by Ward) rather than the parallel one found here. The bridge is a solid piece of gunmetal which has been secured by four screws at a fixed angle. There are no stamps or markings on it at all.

I’ve had the pleasure of examining this plane personally and it has shown to be an intriguing exercise which has thrown up a few surprises. Although I believe the mahogany infill to be original, the wedge and the rear handle are not. The crest of the wedge is “flattened” rather than more round, and does not exhibit a high degree of craftsmanship. It is not the flattening caused by adjusting the iron, but rather one that’s been caused by not having a piece of wood thick enough at the top. Put simply it is not indicative of the style of the day or of any other wedges made by Spiers that I’ve seen.

Similarly there are traces of glue on the surface of the shellac where the handle has been mortised into the infill. The inside of the front of the handle also shows some roughness — as in the curvature is not a smooth one. Whether or not the original handle was open — as most of the early ones were — or closed is also not clear, however these few things lead me to believe that the handle is a replacement, as this plane does not show due care in its crafting and would not have left the Spiers workshop in this condition.

Likewise I should add that the strike button on the front bun is also not original.

I did consider stripping it down completely to check on the shell under the infill (something we planemakers/restorers do from time to time) but in the end I did not want to damage the screws so I stopped short of a full examination. The screws themselves are quite special as, if indeed original, they would be cut by hand rather than by machine. Machine made screws would become popular much later on but, by then, Spiers had switched to using rivets rather than screws. Who knows, maybe one day I might take the plunge and examine the plane more thoroughly.

Of course none of these things detract from the beauty or workability of the plane however. It is a great looking, and uncommon, plane which establishes a link between two contemporary Victorian-era planemakers.

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