The work displayed in Colonial Wrought Iron is from the collection of Jim Sorber. Jim, now in his eighties, has been an avid collector for 70 years. This collection is a result of a life steeped in an enduring appreciation for the skills of his ancestors. Even as a child he was interested in their hand tools and the wonderful things they made. That interest soon grew into a passion.
A unique aspect of Jims collection is that it reflects a certain ethnic influence. Much of his collecting has been done near his home in the counties of Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery and Schuylkill. This area has been settled by German immigrants since the mid-to-late 17th century. Jims collection, many pieces of which are signed and dated, reflects an iron chronicle of the Pennsylvania Dutch migration westward from the Philadelphia area.
One of the main points of interest at the ABANA National Blacksmith Conference in Asheville NC was the Sorber exhibit. Mr. Jim Sorber, now is his eighties, has bee a collector of colonial iron work most of his life. Much of his collection includes pieces of Pennsylvania Dutch and German American influence. After attending a lecture by Don Plummer on the Sorber exhibit, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sorber and Don Plummer. We discussed the pieces in the exhibit and Don's upcoming book on the Sorber collection. They both assured met that the book would cover many unusual wrought iron pieces from Mr. Sorber's lifetime of collecting and that it would be a must own reference book. I received my copy and it is everything they said it would be and more. Don Plummer and Jim Sorber both come from blacksmithing backgrounds and Mr. Sorber was a successful contractor and restorer of old homes as well. This helps Don bring out many details that most people would overlook on the manufacture of the pieces. Details such as many fireplace cranes having a hoist added to lift heavy cook pots and whether a trivet was used for a smoothing iron or for a cook pot. Colonial Wrought Iron is written with the collector, reenactor, museum curator, and modern blacksmith in mind. It has a very interesting text about the manufacture and usage of the pieces with hundreds of clear pictures. Many of the pieces pictured even have close measurements from the originals. This book covers every imaginable group of usable iron utensil from the 18th and 19th century from simple tools to complex clock jacks. There is even an appendix in the back with over 160 blacksmith signatures from the Sorber collection. If you are a collector of wrought iron, recreate early wrought iron pieces in the forge, use replicas of the older piece while buckskining, or reenacting this book needs to be on your must read list.
Buster Grubbs
First rate work - thanks and hats off to the authors.The Implements of Life "way back when ..." When I first received my copy of this book I could hardly put it down. It is a wonderful and detailed pictorial of the Sorber collection of Colonial and Early American wrought iron. It is a pictorial essay that leads one's imagination into what life may have been like at the time when these items were forged and used.
As a practicing blacksmith and tinsmith specializing in historic reproductions, I find the detail of the photos to be very revealing. Revealing not only in terms of clarity of detail, but revealing of the expertise and finesse that the artisans of those times was capable.
My thanks to Jim Sorber for having the collection, and my thanks to Don Plummer for putting it together so we can all experience it.
