Is this a copy or what?

[MitchellC]

I got this Chamberlain & Co (not Ohamberlain like I said in another post) tea kettle the other day. The patent date reads June 23, 1863, but the kettle in the patent database matches a Brinkmeyer kettle https://patents.google.com/patent/US38972. There are some similarities and differences between the two as you can see from the pictures. Brinkmeyer & Co was based in Evansville, IN and Chamberlain & Co was in Cincinnati, but the man who was granted the patent was out of Cincinnati. Does anyone know anything about Chamberlain? I can’t find anything on them and they are not in the data base. Did Chamberlain copy part of the design from Brinkmeyer? The first three photos are my kettle and I pulled the other two from the internet. I’m not sure if picture #3 is actually a crack or not. Could the kettle have been a recast of another that was cracked?

 

[Doug D.]

Menke held another patent pertaining to improvement in tea kettles that he actually assigned to Chamberlain: https://patents.google.com/patent/US37423 so I would guess that, of the two, Brinkmeyer would be the copier. I note the only true similarity is in the lids themselves, although it appears the Chamberlain has lost its thimble piece. Sometimes, the patents seen referenced on pieces were not held by nor assigned to the maker of the utensil. Perhaps features they copied were licensed, perhaps not. Hard to say re: the crack. Can it be seen on the inside as well?

 

[MitchellC]

I can’t see the crack on the inside, but the inside was rusted pretty badly.