Description
Artisan Ideas is happy and proud to announce that, with the kind collaboration of Richard Postman’s family, we are reprinting Anvils in America (AIA). The new printing will be available the week after Christmas, 2025. Despite higher printing costs, we are keeping the retail price at $95.00 — the same as four years ago. For a very limited time, we are offering AIA at a special pre-publication price of only $76.00! Your copy will be reserved and shipped to you after Christmas.
PLEASE NOTE!!!!! We will probably not have stock of Anvils in America until the week AFTER Christmas. If you pay extra for Priority Shipping, this will not get the book to you before Christmas. It will get the book to you quickly, but not before Christmas.
Anvils in America is an extensive and impressive research piece covering how anvils were made, who made them and where. There are dozens of old anvil advertisements and hundreds of pictures of anvils with explanatory text.
Richard Postman defines the 17 distinct parts to an anvil. He discusses weights of anvils and how they were marked. He also discusses how to date an anvil and the reasons for so many anvil patterns and types. Discussion on material and manufacturing process are well covered. This book is a must for the blacksmith and the collector.
Jock Dempsey of AnvilFire.com wrote:
“This book is huge! (11¼ x 8½ x 1½ inches and almost 5 pounds!). When I ordered this book I thought it was a little pricey but after getting my hands on it I realized that it was worth as much as any of the $200 references I have bought from ASM. When this encyclopedic reference was published a decade ago the author thought he would be lucky to sell the first thousand copies. They all sold in less than a year and the book is now in its fifth printing and still selling!
Referring to Anvils in America is so common in blacksmithing and collecting circles that it is merely referred to as “AIA”. Want to know when your anvil was made? Refer to AIA. Want to identify the maker of your anvil and learn their history? Refer to AIA.
Prior to AIA there were a few collectors of anvils and very few had an idea of what they had, how old or how rare. Today there are hundreds of anvil collectors and tool collectors that covet certain anvils. Antique anvils have become a hot item at sales and on ebay. There are now numerous private anvil museums.
Anvils in America is the single authoritative reference on anvils, their manufacture, history and lore. The early history of anvils starts with European makers, many long gone and now unknown. They are known only by the quality of their work and distinctive styles that are illustrated with photos by the author. The history continues with the dominance of the English anvil makers that had the power of the British Empire behind their distribution of anvils world wide. Later U.S. makers replace the dominance of the English and other countries start to export anvils to the U.S. Anvils in America documents much of this history through the makers of today! Anvils in America includes many anvil manufacturers logos as they changed over time and approximate dates of use. It also includes rare difficult to find serial numbers of several makers with time of manufacture.
Many rare and unusual anvils are shown such as the huge bridge anvils used in rairroad shops and in oilfields, chainmakers’ anvils, sawyers’ anvils and double arch anvils. Anvil lore included in AIA covers true stories and fiction. Anvil shoots gone wrong and what happens when you put too big an anvil in a compact car. . . Also included are the humorous anvil post cards by Gill Fahrenwald.
How anvils were made and many anvil manufacturing patents are found throughout the book
The only complaints about this book is that once a blacksmith or tool collector picks it up they cannot go to sleep until they finished it! A wonderful gift for a blacksmith, historian, tool collector or reenactor.”
564 pages, Hardcover, over 700 illustrations, printed in 2025.
PLEASE NOTE!!!!! We will probably not have stock of Anvils in America until the week AFTER Christmas. If you pay extra for Priority Shipping, this will not get the book to you before Christmas. It will get the book to you quickly, but not before Christmas.
