Pg 68 - Gerstner Stencils & Year Dates

Stencils and Manufactured Year

The black stencil is painted on the inside of the chest, case or base’s bottom board. You’ll need to remove the large bottom drawers from your unit to view.

Your next step is to observe your complete stencil so you can identify which below stencil represents yours. Then read its explanation. You may be able to define the year of manufacture for your chest, case or base, even if you don’t know its Style #. (Don’t be concerned about the single capital letter nor the handwritten numbers near it. Those are for production purposes).

The above stencil was used from 1940 - 1959 and does not include any stenciled numbers for year of manufacturing. Note that the top line ‘BUILT BY’ is curved up at the center. The bottom line ‘DAYTON, OHIO’ is curved down at the center.

This stencil was also used in 1959. Note that its ‘BUILT BY’ and ‘DAYTON, OHIO’ are straight lines, not curved. The first 2 numbers are the manufactured year date. The first two digits must be 59. Examples – 59, 598 or 5987654 etc. are year 59.

If your stencil does not match the above, then see the 1959 - 1999 definition on Pg 210.