>Can more information be gathered from a patent date of Mar 26, 1898?
Only that it is increasing unlikely that it is a US patent date. By 1895 the patent office is pretty consistant about releasing patents on Tuesday.
Mar 26,1898 is a Saturday...How many Patent offices are open saturdays?.
It is not a valid issue date, possible close dates would be Mar 22,1898, Mar 29,1898, or Mar 26,1895
The casting in the photo is clear enough that I don't think it is any of those...
---OK, for the truely bored, all the patent titles I have in 1800's with both anvil and vise in the title....
Patent # date(yyyy/mm/dd) title
00019861 18580406 Vise-anvil for repairing t-rails
00056346 18660717 Improved anvil and vise combined.
00091909 18690629 Improved anvil and vise combined.
00203167 18780430 Improvement in combined anvil and vise.
00220342 18791007 Improvement in combined anvil and vise.
00220886 18791021 Improvement in combined anvil and vise.
00221448 18791111 Improvement in`combined vise and anvil.
00221781 18791118 Improvement in combined anvil and vise.
00225563 18800316 Combined anvil and vise.
00239686 18810405 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
00240217 18810419 Combined anvil and vise.
00258855 18820530 Combined anvil and vise.
00296658 18840408 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
00308820 18841202 Combined anvil and vise.
00326402 18850915 Combined anvil, drill, and vise.
00328550 18851020 Combined anvil, vise, and drill
00334626 18860119 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
00362614 18870510 Horseshoe-vise attachment for anvils.
00380019 18880327 Combined anvil and vise.
00394857 18881218 Anvil and vise attachment.
00405982 18890625 Combined anvil and vise.
00425602 18900415 Combined anvil and vise.
00426362 18900422 Combined anvil and vise.
00426990 18900429 Combined anvil and vise.
00507061 18931017 Foot-vise for anvils.
00516288 18940313 Combined vise, drill, and anvil.
00532654 18950115 Combined anvil and vise
00533689 18950205 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
00536219 18950326 Combined anvil, vise, and drilling-machine.
00549773 18951112 Horseshoe-calking vise for anvils.
00612415 18981018 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
00624910 18990516 Combined anvil, vise, and drill.
RE009944 18811122 Combined anvil, vise, and drill
Even as an application date it is odd, tho possible I suppose, if the app date is the mail stamp date