IMPORTANT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA CAST-IRON HORSEHEAD HITCHING POST, the head of outstanding folk art form with well-detailed flowing mane and facial details to one side, the other side embossed "METROPOLITAN / WORKS / W. E. TANNER & CO / RICHMOND, VA", original tie-off ring to mouth, raised on a tapering post with upright leaves to bottom at ground level. William E. Tanner & Co., Metropolitan Iron Works, Richmond, VA. 1869-1881. 66" HOA, 48 1/2" H above ground.
Provenance: From an important Virginia private collection.
Purchased in the Richmond, VA area.
Catalogue Note: This is the only example of decorative ironwork from Tanner's ironworks we have been able to locate. This type of product is not listed in any of the firm's advertisements.
From vintagemachinery.org, "The Metropolitan Iron Works, also known as the Metropolitan Iron and Brass Works, and its operators and successors manufactured machinery and locomotives from 1865 through 1901. The primary principals for the first two decades were William E. Tanner, Jacob Otto Ehebts, and Alexander Delaney. Delaney had been superintendent of Tredegar Iron Works, and Tanner and his father had also been associated with Tredegar. According an 1870 retrospective in the Richmond Dispatch, the iron works was operated by partners Tanner & Ehbets, changed Jan. 1, 1868 to Tanner, Ehbets & Delaney, and with Ehbet's retirement on July 31, 1869, it became William E. Tanner & Co., with Delaney still active in management. The latter name was used through 1881, according to Richmond city directories. In the 1882 directory, the firm was renamed Tanner & Delaney Engine Co. The business began in a small building at the southeast corner of S. 7th St. and Canal St. It expanded west on Canal St. to S. 6th, and back to E. Cary St. It included the Pae mansion on S. 6th which was used for pattern storage. The works was largely destroyed by fire Nov. 11, 1881, and rebuilt on a new 7-acre site in upper Shockoe Valley, outside the city limits. Products during these decades included portable and stationary steam engines, locomotives, sawmills, boilers, grist mills, gas works, and a spark arrester invented by Delaney.
In 1887, William E. Tanner and Alexander Delaney left the business, and the name changed to Richmond Locomotive & Machine Works. The manufacture of sawmills continued for a few years, but the business continued to manufacture stationary steam engines and a variety of boilers. In 1901, the company merged with 7 other companies to form American Locomotive Co. American continued to manufacture locomotives until 1927 at the Shockoe Valley plant. Around 1902, American sold its Tanner & Delaney Engine Co. patterns to Richmond Iron Works, which continued to make replacement parts until its 1912 bankruptcy. In 1917, American bought the Richmond Iron Works plant on N. Boulevard for additional foundry capacity."
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Excellent condition.