Pianomaker Henry O. Studley is best known for creating the Studley Tool Chest, which has hundreds of tools for making pianos. Every tool has a place inside the chest, often with clever organizational arrangements that you'd have to see to believe (so don't miss the video clip below).
The tool chest was made out of mahogany, rosewood, walnut, ebony, mother of pearl and ivory - materials that were most likely saved and reused from scrap material of Studley's place of work, the Poole Piano Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. It also contained various Masonic symbols.
After his death in 1925, the tool chest was bequeathed to a friend. In the 1980s, that man's grandson loaned the chest to the Smithsonian and then it was purchased by a private collector.
The tool chest was the subject of the book "Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley" by Donald C. Williams, published by Lost Art Press.
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Image: Narayan Nayar
Henry O. Studley at the Poole Piano Factory, with his tool chest hung on the wall - via Phoenix Masonry
The Studley Tool Chest with tools removed - via Phoenix Masonry