Bronze Art Nouveau Wall
Plaque commemorating the
50th Anniversary of Eureka
Lodge No. 39
This is a very nice Bronze Art
Nouveau Wall Plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of Eureka Lodge No. 39 F.
& A.M. on Jan 16th, 1906. This 100 year old plaque was found in like new
condition in its original box. The box was in tatters, but there was enough to
protect the plaque. The box was lined with a doily (also in tatters),
definitely a touch from another age. The plaque is signed on the reverse by the
foundry: AMW NEWARK NJ, and there is a mounting ring on the upper reverse.
It measures 144 X 208 mm (5 ¾ X 8 1/8 inches), and weighs 720 grams or (1
pound, 9.4 oz)
The Ronson lighter company started as The
Art Metal Works in 1886 by Louis V. Aronson, a gifted man who at 16 years
old received a U.S. patent for a commercially valuable metal plating process he
developed. "His experiments, which he has been conducting since his early
youth, resulted in 1893 in the discovery of a process for electrically producing
tinplate. Much money was expended upon improving the process... and has been of
great practical value to the whole industry."
[Retaining
its rights, he sold the patent and used its proceeds to open the Art Metal Works
in New York City. The following year
he moved his factory to Newwark, New Jersey. Soon the company was producing a
variety of high quality lamps, book ends, statues and other decorative items,
prized today for their detail in the collector marketplace
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