Disappearing Anvil

I had just managed to build an anvil in my mine down at level 10. I placed it and repaired an enchanted iron pickaxe with an unenchanted iron pickaxe. It worked. I renamed it. Then I exited the menu and I proceded to break down the anvil with a cobblestone block since I did not want to use my newly restored pickaxe for the job. When the anvil broke, instead of changing into an icon I could pick up it just disappeared. I tried force quitting in order to restart from an older savegame and still have the anvil, but, obviously, the game had saved automatically and I am now left 31-iron-pieces-less and without an anvil.