painted cast iron and wood with decorated tin screen sided cover; The Enterprise Mfg., Co. made a variety of robust fixtures for the country stores of the late nineteenth century. Most that survived are the elaborate and colorful coffee mills made in variety of sizes. Among the scarcest country store fixtures they produced is this elaborate mechanical cheese cutter complete with screen sided cover to protect the product from flies. A circular wood cheese board mounted in a grooved cast iron wheel. A smaller crank rotates the base such that a particular size wedge of cheese may be cut as the blade is lowered. Surprisingly just above the small crank is the original paper label delineating the number of turns of the crank needed per pound of cheese to be cut, depending on size of cheese wheel. This was offered in 1904 catalog for $16.00 with cover.

25" t. 25" deep incl. hand crank, cover 17" diam.

excellent