Late Thuringian Escher stones

[hatzicho]

I already touched this issue several times in my previous post on Thuringians. But since there is quite an interest on that stones now, I want to give some further informations on the history of stones of the late period of the Escher company.

The company J.G. Escher & Son was mainly a trading company located in Sonneberg. The waterwhetstones they sold in the 19^th and beginning 20^th century -equipped with their well known label- were mined by small mining companies in the area of Steinach.

Over a long time mining and trading of these whetstones were two completely different businesses in Thuringia. For several years in the 19^th century there was even a law, which prohibits the mining companies to trade the stones by themselves. It was only allowed for the miners to sell the stones to trading companies. That might explain why the Escher company is well known until today, but the miners of that stones who did most of the work and who had the knowledge, where to find and how to quarry the good stones, remain mostly unknown.

This situation in the Thuringian area changed after the ending of WW1, when the mining companies began to trade their own stones. This had the former consequence that the trading companies like Escher did not get any more waterwhetstones from the miners– after they had been delivered the last hundred years. Or they had to pay even a much higher price. So at the beginning 20^th century the trading companies had to look for new sources.

From the 1920ths on the Escher&Son company was owned by Rudolf Schwarz who married a great-great-grandchild of the company founder J.G. Escher.
Since the JGES company didn’t had own whetstone quarries, Rudolf Schwarz did a lot of research in the Thuringina mountains to find new sources. He was consulted and accompanied by a well known german geologic expert of this time and they finally found two new whetstone quarries that deliver the material from 1925 till the end of the company in 1953. The stones that came from these quarries were blue and mottled black in color.
Of course at the beginning the Escher & son company also further sold some green stones from the old miners in Steinach, but more less in number and for a higher price. So the blue and black stones prevail more and more over the well known green hones.
The late stones did not get much publicity in the States, because with beginning of the nazi regime in 1933 the export and trading with the States touched down.



Whereas the late blue JGES that were mined until approximately 1937 are somehow comparable to the blue Thuringians of the early period from Steinach - both are Devonian age stones and the honing capability is comparable. The late blue ones seem to be a little bit finer and more dark blue in color (the typical early blue or dark blue labeled Escher stones all got a certain green hue, the late blue ones are going more into black) - are the mottled stones more comparable to hones know as “Schwedentein”. The hones are a bit harder and have the typical mottling that also most of the Schwedenstein hones do have (Schwedenstein hones do have a green color though). Also both types are most comparable in honing capabilities.