Vintage Bostitch H2B Hammer Tacker, Rhode Island, c. 1948–1986
La Rue Tool & Supply Co
The Piece
A Bostitch hammer tacker, the tool a roofer or an upholsterer swings rather than squeezes. There is no trigger and no handle to grip closed: the staple is driven by the impact of the head against the work, which is why the body is a heavy cast aluminium frame carrying a steel anvil and a riveted linkage rather than the light pressed shell of a desk stapler. The model designation MODEL H2B is cast into the side of the frame.
The handle is moulded in a dark olive brown thermoset with fine vertical ribbing along its length and the Bostitch name raised inside an oval cartouche. At the butt sits a painted end cap in a strong turquoise, worn back to bare metal across its face from decades of being set down and knocked about. That single stroke of colour against the grey castings and the brown handle is most of the reason the object reads as well as it does on a shelf.
History & Provenance
The firm began in 1896 in Arlington, Massachusetts as the Boston Wire Stitcher Company, founded by Thomas Briggs around a machine that stitched books from a coil of wire. It brought out its first portable stapler in 1914 and the cohered strip staple in 1924, which is the ancestor of every staple sold today. In 1948 the company formally took the shortened name Bostitch, and in 1957 moved to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where it still sits.
That 1948 change is the floor for this tool. It carries the Bostitch name on its own, so it cannot have been made while the firm was still trading as Boston Wire Stitcher. The ceiling comes from what is absent: Textron bought the company in 1966 and Stanley Works bought it from Textron in January 1986, after which the tools carried Stanley Bostitch branding. There is no Stanley here. The window is documented at both ends rather than argued from the shape of the castings.
The H2B was a working tool rather than a domestic one. It was swung to fix roofing felt, insulation, house wrap and upholstery webbing, and it is remembered by the contractors who used it as heavy, durable and easy to clear when it jammed, which mattered more than elegance when you were holding it at the edge of a roof.
Product Details
| Era | c. 1948–1986. The Bostitch name alone gives the floor, since the firm traded as the Boston Wire Stitcher Company until 1948; the absence of any Stanley marking gives the ceiling, since Stanley Works acquired the company in January 1986 and branded the tools Stanley Bostitch thereafter |
| Maker | Bostitch, Rhode Island |
| Model | H2B, cast into the frame |
| Type | Hammer tacker, impact driven, no trigger |
| Materials | Cast aluminium frame, steel anvil and linkage, moulded thermoset handle, painted steel end cap |
| Dimensions | Approximately 14 in. long by 4 in. high by 2 in. wide |
| Condition | Good honest working condition. Castings bright with handling marks and light surface oxidation, with heavier rust across the steel anvil and the top plate. Handle sound, ribbing and the Bostitch cartouche crisp. Turquoise end cap worn through to bare metal across its face. Magazine empty and the mechanism not tested or serviced; sold as found and as a decorative object rather than a working tool. |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
This is the kind of object that earns a shelf without pretending to be art. The silhouette is good from every side, the mechanism is legible enough that people pick it up and work out what it does, and the worn turquoise cap gives it a colour note that nothing else in a room has to answer to. It sits well on a workbench, a studio shelf or a bookcase among tools and paper, and it photographs better than almost anything else at its size.
Every piece is packed with professional-grade materials: multiple foam layers, double-boxing, directional and fragile handling labels. For large furniture we use custom timber crating. We photograph packing before dispatch and can provide images on request.
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