The ND Co SF CAL sadiron stand

This is a scarce sadiron stand with a mysterious history! On the face is the lettering ND Co SF CAL. Its size and design is typical of other advertising sadiron stands, circa 1880s -1920s.

Cast iron, 7 7/8 x 4 1/4” w/three 1 1/4” legs. Shallow top side rails on platform. Long filed gate mark along side. Interesting handle! Unsigned on reverse. No cracks; a few small dings commensurate with age and use.

My research uncovered the existence of the Nathan-Dohrmann Company, 122-132 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California. It proclaimed itself “The Largest and Finest China Store in America”, selling china, glassware, lamps and art goods. The store prospered from 1868 until it was destroyed in the The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Here’s a sobering photo of people sorting through the rubble of the Nathan-Dohrmann store.

I also found an interesting article in the San Francisco Bay Area Postcard Club’s January 2014 newsletter, Pages 10-12: Sets In The City – Nathan Dohrmann. It mentions that the company reorganized in 1908, signing a 17 year lease on a new building in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

It appears the company expanded to stores around the USA. After the late 1930s, information gets scarce. I haven’t been able to determine the course of the company or when it officially closed. Nathan-Dohrmann, San Francisco was listed among many other vendors in an advertisement for Coralitos (Pacific Pottery) Gift Sets on pages 38-39 in the 12/5/1938 issue of Life Magazine. I also found an obituary for a lifelong San Francisco resident, born in 1920, who sold china for Nathan-Dohrmann until she married in the 1950s.

I will continue to research the origins of the ND sadiron stand. Have any information to share? Contact me!

Postscript: the ND SF CAL sadiron stand is almost identical in design to another I once had in my collection. This GE SF CAL nickel-plated stand (below), also unsigned on reverse, measures 7 1/4″ x 3 5/8″ with three 7/8″ feet.