Very Rare Copper Still, possibly Philip Apple, possibly West Chester, Pennsylvania, Circa 1820

This copper still is one of the few surviving early 19th century American stills. It was assembled using riveted joints that only skilled coppersmiths could accomplish. The process is known as scrubbing and was done using a specific hammer. The smith hammered each rivet in a series of successive blows thereby drawing them up and forming a pyramidal shape as see on the seams of the current lot. A nearly identical still is in the collection of Winterthur Museum (Donald L. Fennimore, Metalwork in Early America: Copper and Its Alloys from the Winterthur Collection, (Winterthur: DE: The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1996), pp. 88-9, no. 18).