O42 Knockoff Chest

[2tool...@gmail.com]

Should you own one of the below chests, would you please inspect it for any indication as to who the manufacturer may be and let me know what you find, thanks much.

The DoAll 0/3 instrument service Chest has the same 2 screws in the till face board, the same style vertical center board front panel and uses the same old lid restraint hinges. They may have used the same mfr. as the O42 Knockoff?

O42 Knockoff 

It may not be a Gerstner and may be dated in the ‘30s to ‘40s. 

I bought what I thought was a pre-1936 O42 Market Test Chest. I say MTC because of the different characteristics. It meets the Gerstner O42 8/3 drawer configuration & dimensions, except it’s ¼” higher at 16”. It has an A50M29 lid lock, which is embossed with Eagle Lock Co., and the original key. It has the front panel guide pin slots in each side bottom for sliding under the drawers. The only other marking is that it was #73 in the production run, no run number. 

Now for some different characteristics --

All, and I mean all, of the hardware is riveted in place with small-headed rivets, no screws.

At the outside bottom of the till’s face board are 2 screws going into the till’s bottom board.

The lid has 3 original older style self-restraining hinges.

The old-style top handle center wire has 2 external button ends.

The top of the lids surface is a solid 5/8” thick oak board, its front edge is flush with the face of the lid.

The only veneer is on the back panel.

No finger joints, at all.

No 45-degree corner wood in till corners.

It never had the metal pin-guide plates at each inside end of the case for the front panel guide pins. The panel pins are on metal angle brackets screwed to the bottom inside face of the front panel. The panel itself looks and measures the very same as the pre 1943 O42 relief panel. Its finger pull is totally round, 2-piece, attached with 3 screws.

All Drawers have 3/16” plywood bottoms, not metal. Therefore, about 1/8” less inside depth. The large drawers are the correct inside depths. 

Frank Dressel is written on the inside of the horizontal divider board. I did a genealogy search and quite a few Frank Dressel’s were in the New England area. However, In the 1940 Census there was a 19-year-old Frank Dressel born and raised in Dayton, OH. Maybe it’s him, but who knows? 

I have pictures of 3 other of these chests that are identical to mine, except for the front panels. Their panels are 2 flat reliefs with a vertical center board and a bottom tongue to fit into the groove in the bottom boards of the chests, no pins.