The Stencil Brush
Marsh Stencil Brush
Just after the turn of the 19th century, along the northern coast of Spain near Bilboa, Hermilio Alcalde del Rio discovered The Cave of El Castillo and found what is not only the oldest stenciled art we know, but likely the oldest human art of any kind that we know. These ochre paintings consist of several human hands and a number of red disks, recently Uranium/Thorium dated to around 39,000 BC.
Stenciled ochre hands at the Cueva de las Manos in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina
It is theorized that Prehistoric man or woman would place their hand against the wall, and blow finely crushed pigment around it. 41,000 years later, Walt G. Marsh, seeing the need to improve the art form, would invent this--The Marsh Brush.
Here he is describing the device for patent application: “My invention relates to improved fountain stencil and marking brushes and has for its object to provide a brush having a handle-reservoir, with a finger-operated mechanism interposed between the brush and handle-reservoir.”
Illustration from Cyclopedia of Painting, Stencil brush. 1908
In plainer words, the ribbed aluminum cylinder handle dispenses ink into the black horse hair bristles with the push of a button, at once freeing up a hand and eliminating the need for paint trays or buckets. So handy was the new autofilling brush that it helped to launch the The Marsh Stencil Machine Co in 1920, the same year Hermilio Alcalde del Rio was elected mayor of his home town Torrelavega, where he served for two years. The company has had lasting success and was purchased (at least in name) in 2000. It exists now as MSSC near it’s original home in Illinois, still specializing in marking, stenciling, sealing, and coding.
Knowledge Sources
https://aphmuseum.org/record/marsh-fountain-brush/
Package Advertiser, Board Products Publishing Company, 1921
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1477578
http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/pdf_files/History%20of%20Belleville,%20Illinois.pdf 64. https://msscllc.com
https://journal.alabamachanin.com/2015/02/the-history-of-stenciling/
https://stencilsforwalls.com/blogs/about-stencilling/the-history-of-stencilling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stencil
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/castillo-cave-paintings.htm
