2013 - Volume #37, Issue #3, Page #23
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Collector Seeks Older Ornate Pumps
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“Starting in the early 1800’s, manufacturers really started making ornate well pumps,” says Dave Wilson, Van Meter, Iowa. “By the 1920’s and beyond, they became more and more plain. I collect the ornate, older pumps.”
Wilson has been collecting hand pumps for more than 10 years. Today he has around 40 “wall” pumps, as well as numerous floor pumps. The wall pumps were used in homes to pump water into a reservoir on an upper floor. The more well-to-do the home, the fancier such pumps tended to be. Even well pumps could be ornate.
“If you look in some of the old catalogs, you will be amazed at how decorative they could be,” says Wilson.
Most of his pumps are left the way he found them. Some are still waiting to be cleaned up. Their condition usually depends on whether they were left in a basement or dumped in a scrap pile.
“I have a friend who fixes them all up with new leathers and everything,” says Wilson. “Most are not in shape to pump water without being releathered. The cylinder is often pitted and rusted.”
Wilson is especially interested in pumps built by W. & B. Douglas, a Connecticut company, although he likes any ornate pump made in the U.S. He says that when it comes to collecting pumps, he’s just a beginner.
“I know guys with 200 to 300 pumps,” says Wilson. “You have to go out East to find some of the really ornate pumps. Most of them never made it to the Midwest or West.”
Wilson says pumps range in price from $30 to $40 on up, with some selling for $300 to $350. He has found most of his pumps at swap meets, on eBay and in antique shops.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Wilson, Box 26, Van Meter, Iowa 50261 (ph 515 681-8559).
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