A Very Studley Chest Indeed

I don’t know what posessed Henry O. Studley to build  this case to hold 300 mostly piano-making tools but I have to hand it to the man for his ingenuity and craftsmanship. Had he lived 150 years later, he’d be designing circuit boards. As it stands, Studley was born in 1838 and worked as a piano maker, carpenter and mason. Sometime in the 1890s he designed this amazing tool cabinet, which has become known in woodworking circles as the Henry O. Studley tool chest. Who knows how many years it took him to perfect this thing, but it holds the 300 tools in precisely-fit locations, measures just 40 inches tall, 20 inches wide and 9 inches deep, and is so heavy it requires three men to lift. Studley made the chest while he was an employee of the Poole Piano Company in Massachusettes, and presumably acquired the cabinet’s materials from piano-factory cut-offs: The chest is made from mahogany, rosewood, walnut, ebony, and mother-of-pearl.