Thread: J.G. Escher & Son – More than hones

Originally Posted by Logistics

Not at all uncommon for mining companies to be in multiple areas.

I hadn't thought of that until you brought it up, but you very well may be right, IIRC Ardennes coticule is just a sideline for whatever else it is that they are mining.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I hadn't thought of that until you brought it up, but you very well may be right, IIRC Ardennes coticule is just a sideline for whatever else it is that they are mining.

That's correct. I know the main part of the mining op are stones used in construction.

JG Escher was a distributor, not a miner. More specifically, he was the owner of a global multi-commodity distribution company, who bought rock from a company who mined. This isn't news. But it is cool to see one of his other offerings.

http://books.google.com/books?id=K7x...her%22&f=false

Originally Posted by regularjoe

JG Escher was a distributor, not a miner. More specifically, he was the owner of a global multi-commodity distribution company, who bought rock from a company who mined. This isn't news. But it is cool to see one of his other offerings.

http://books.google.com/books?id=K7x...her%22&f=false

Link doesn't open, at least in Safari,Tapa Talk or Crome. Double O

Yeah, I wasn't sure it'd work. I've tried to link to Google books before, and didn't get any feedback about it. Anyhow, search J.G. Escher in Google books. You should come up with a link to a book named "History of European Commerce" or something similar listing JG Escher as a person engaged in the sale of toys, masks, and other goods. I guess the problem is that there were several J.G. Eschers. One was a pastor in Wisconsin. Another was a very successful Swiss businessman. One was a mayor of Zurich. I'm not sure if any of these fellows is our Mr. Escher, or if any of them are the same JG Escher. I think Neil Miller, Martin103, Scienceguy, or Voidmonster would all be better people to talk to than myself about this. They seem to have a flair for research that I can't imitate on my best day. The thing to remember is that Escher wasn't a guy who sorted stones. He was a guy who put his name on stones. And most if not all of the German water stones that got his name ended up being great razor hones. Which is a correlation, but not a causation. I expect our JG Escher was a man who surrounded himself with people who could do the things he did not do. One of those things being sourcing his stone. He may had visited a mine from time to time, but more likely, his primary business took place behind a desk, or in board meetings. People don't find worldwide success by sitting down in a hole sorting razor hones.

Originally Posted by Logistics

Jimmy,

If I had to make an educated guess it would be a product of kaolinite that is used for pottery clay. A wild stab at this would have me to believe when the company was mining for Kaolinite they discovered the sharpening stones. Or possibly the reverse, they were mining for the sharpening stones and decided to make a profit from the kaolinite.

Not at all uncommon for mining companies to be in multiple areas. Think diamonds. Whatever diamond mines don't sell for jewelery can become diamond drill bits or saw diamond tipped saw blades.

I could be wrong but it's just a thought.

Excellent thoughts logistic!
Indeed there has been a quite famous porcelain company in this area at their times that also produces small porcelanic figures, animals, dolls, etc. The company existed 1772 - 1939.

Porzellan-Fabrik Limbach Puppen Thüringen Werbung 1919 Reklame doll Spielzeug ad | eBay

But the whetstones have been found long before that time.
This special region of thuringia is very rich of natural resources, that have been mined from the middle ages on or even earlier.
There have been glas manufacturers and of course the main business - the slate industry.

So the people in this region speak about the ages of white gold (porcelain) and blue gold (slate). But the first people that explore the mountains and valleys there were looking for somthing else.

They were digging for gold itself! And indeed gold was also found in this region. The intersting thing is that a lot of the depositis of gold were found next to the old whetstone quarries.

So it is most probable that gold miners who had to sharpen their tools and knifes were the first ones, who explored the quarries and began trading with the whetstones they found.

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Y People don't find worldwide success by sitting down in a hole sorting razor hones.

What about Lynn Abrams ?

Originally Posted by hatzicho

So it is most probable that gold miners who had to sharpen their tools and knifes were the first ones, who explored the quarries and began trading with the whetstones they found.

And now the labeled Eschers are the gold !

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

What about Lynn Abrams ?

And now the labeled Eschers are the gold !

Yellow-green gold!