This is a free comment and not an "answer" to your question, which
only a G-A Researcher with a blue name like TLSpiegel can post.
I understood your question a little more broadly.
The history of hardware stores predates that name for them, going back
to medieval England, where they were (and still are) called
ironmongers, sellers of iron.
This site gives the history of Ironmongers Lane in London. If you
click on Ironmongers Company at the bottom right on the page, you will
see that the trade and guild are of long standing.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=3198
As the name suggests, ironmongers were predominantly dealers, though
another site explains that those in Ironmongers Lane made pots and
pans for the nearby poultry market, and a further one also mentions
that they made small things.
So they dealt in hard goods, versus soft goods, i.e., cloth. As more
different types of metal fittings were prefabricated (rather than
being made to order) in 18th and 19th centuries, their range of goods
expanded, as they have since. In a good oldfashioned ironmongers in
England or a hardware store in the States, one used to be able to buy
a single screw, bolt, nails by weight and much else, maybe get a small
part repaired.
How did they look in the 19th and early 20th century? In England,
like the picture on the cover of this book:
http://www.mjdtools.com/books/140919.htm
And they still do, maybe with plastic laundry baskets, etc. in front
of the store instead of metal buckets and tubs.
I hope this helps. |