This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/29/2021
Joseph Claude Sinel Model S “Step On It” Scale. New York, ca. 1920s. Cast iron, steel, mirrored glass. Classic Art Deco design echoing that of the Empire State Building. Height 77 ½”. Working. Requires third party transportation. An important piece of industrial design; examples of this machine are held at several major American art museums. One of the pioneers of industrial design, Joseph Claude Sinel (1889-1975) began his career in 1918 San Francisco. By 1923 he had over 300 trademark designs to his credit, one of his most famous being the Model S (“Step on It”) scale. This scale has been restored down to the bare metal mechanism. It is unusual for not having any numbers on the dial, supposedly so that one’s weight is not revealed to random passersby. Instead, the person’s weight was printed on a card dispensed from the scale along with a fortune.