Hercules Anchor Co. Patented Sad Iron
The Hercules Anchor Co. of Toledo, Ohio manufactured pressing irons in the early twentieth century. This size 2 patented sad iron — bearing the patent date August 4, 1903 and the full maker cartouche "Hercules Anchor Co. / Toledo / Ohio" — is a product of the same Ohio manufacturing tradition that produced the hollow ware in the SSC collection, expressed in a different form: not a skillet, but a tool for domestic labor, cast from the same gray iron, by an Ohio foundry whose history has not yet been fully written. The Hercules Anchor Co. does not appear in standard cast iron references. This piece is one of the primary physical records of its existence.
The A.C. Williams Co. Sad Iron
Before the cast iron banks. Before the toy automobiles and airplanes sold through Woolworth's and Kresge's. Before A.C. Williams became the largest manufacturer of cast iron toys in the world — there was a heavy, solid sad iron with a detachable wooden handle. This one is marked "WILLIAMS CO." and "RAVENNA, OHIO" and dates to the transitional period when miniature models of this very product, made for traveling salesmen, caught a buyer's eye and launched one of Ohio's most celebrated foundries into the toy business. Acquired from Etsy seller stoneridgeattic, March 2026.