Creation Date

1890 – 1900

Description

A stitch horse / harness maker's bench. Hand shaped and hand twined, except for 3 replacement rungs. The pine seat is shaped for sitting (roughly like a figure 8), is 25 " long and 26 inches from the floor. The legs are of wood. There are 2 rungs on the front, back, and right side. The left side has one rung and a bar that supports the machine's to tighten the vise. The vise is 17.5 inches high, curved to a gripping edge at its top. It is attached to the bench. One side is stationary and the other is hinged. A spring keeps the two sides apart while a leather thong attached to the hinged side and fed through the stationery side and down to the mechanism on the floor tightens the vise. The floor mechanism is a wooden lever with a metal piece attached that fits into a toothed piece of iron screwed into the right front leg. The tooth piece holds the leg and therefore the leather strap and the vise in different positions.
This horse belonged to John Wheeler who had a harness shop in Hastings, Minnesota. He gave it to John Krapes of Glenwood.