letter scale, maker Narcisse Briais, France
This is a pretty old letter scale from France. This scale model can be seen on a product poster from June 1891. The same scale model can be found with a scale on which the value 7½ is indicated separately, which version is probably from before 1862. It is a design by Narcisse-Eugène Briais from Paris, usually called shorter Narcisse Briais. The NB logo, the logo of Narcisse Briais, is already on this letter scale. Narcisse Briais was a French instrument maker who produced letter scales and balances between 1859 and 1886. The N.B. logo was introduced from 1876 onwards. After 1886 G. Restorf took over the company and continued to apply the N.B. logo. In 1914 Restorf discontinued the company. After this M. Ducos used the logo N.B. on his letter scales in the period 1915-1926 and from 1927-1931 M. Guérin continued to apply the N.B. logo still on letter scales (source: Le Système métrique 1997-3, page 1124). This complicates a precise date, it can be at its largest between 1876 and 1931.
From Narcisse Briais, or from his successors, letter scales have been shown already, see for example the photographic scale, the Loth letter scale, the herbs & powder scale, the déposé letter scale and the oldest Briais letter scale.
The letter scale shown here is 22 centimeters high, the base diameter is 10.4 cm and the diameter of the letter tray is 6.3 cm. The weighing range is 100 grams. The gram weighing unit is not stated on the scale.
There are also copies with a weighing range of up to 60 grams and up to 300 grams.
Below some more images of this Briais letter scale.
back of the letter scale
