Locks and Builders Hardware by Henry R. Towne

I recently purchased a reprint of the above-captioned ©1904 classic subtitled A Handbook for Architects and thought you folks might be interested. This is a complete history of American and foreign hardware written at the dawn of the 20th century by one of giants of the industry, the late Henry R. Towne, 1844-1924, then president of Yale & Towne Mfg. Co. In 1020+ pages he includes a complete glossary of technical terms relating to locks and hardware, details of manufacturing techniques and materials, an extensive history of art metal work and schools of ornament, a complete guide to every Y&T design from about 1890 forward and many other details I found fascinating.

I purchased the reprint, which are apparently made to order from AbeBooks, said to be owned by Amazon.com; who sourced it from their partner True World of Books in Delhi, India. My total cost was $40.20 including international drop shipping, I note they no longer offer the softcover version I received on their website but rather a leather bound edition for $70.49 with free shipping, see link if interested.


Now for the difficult part, I placed the order on January 27th and I received my reprint on June 15th, nearly 5 months later! As stated earlier, these are presumably made to order and in fairness the country was on cornoavirus lockdown and I'm told India Post was not in operation, but I believe both those situations have now ended. Thus you may have a better experience in securing timely delivery, should you decide to pay the premium and order? This volume can also be found gratis on the internet in pdf format from several sources but the image quality appears to be poor on the couple websites that I visited.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&kn=&an=Henry+R.+Towne&tn=Locks+and+Builder s+Hardware&isbn=

Pete Schifferli