Metals for the fashion-conscious consumer

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2001 by John D. Davis

A whole range of household accessories from gilt-brass cloak pins (PI.II) to candlesticks of all sorts (PI. VII) complemented the toys and jewelry. By mid- century, Birmingham had become the center in England for the manufacture of base-metal candlesticks. No fewer than sixty-one candlestick makers, employing various materials, are known to have worked in Birmingham in the eighteenth century. About half of them specialized in brass candlesticks, including George Grove, who was immensely productive from the 1740s until his death in 1768. The Dowler family was also prominent in the trade, with the Charles Street branch noted for its brass candlesticks and the Moor Street branch, active from 1751 to 1808, remembered through the ample survival of its iron ones. [5] Their "hogscraper" candlesticks, marked with the family surname on the thumb ejectors, are ftequently encountered today, while their more elaborate and expensive examples in polished iron or steel are considerably rarer.

We do not know as much as we would like about the size and organization of these specialist firms. They appear to have been representative of mid-sized Birmingham shops, often family firms, sometimes involving partnerships, with an ample supply of apprentices and skilled journeymen. We get a sense of the division of tasks in the shop of John Hidson, a candlestick maker, who advertised in the March 22, 1765, issue of Aris's Birmingham Gazette that he wanted "five journey men steel snuffer makers-two to file, one to smooth, one to polish, one to finish." They would work on snuffers to fit stands, such as the splendid example shown in Plate IV that bears the mark of this very shop. The expert use of forging dies and of skilled hands to file, smooth, polish, and finish are readily apparent. There would be an analogous division of labor for the production of many other lines of goods made in factories both large and small.

The greatest of the Birmingham entrepreneurs was Matthew Boulton (see Pl. VIII). Born there in 1728 and raised in the city's metalworking trades, he spent the greater part of his life transforming those trades into a modem industry. Within several years after inheriting the family buckle and toy-making business upon his father's death in 1759, he built the Soho Manufactory on the outskirts of Birmingham. This vast complex brought together seven hundred workmen in the organized production of various lines of metalwares. It is not surprising that when Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) visited the new factory in 1767 he hailed Boulton as "the most complete manufacturer in England in metals." [6]

All of this would not have been possible without advanced methods of manufacture. Boulton was well aware that he had to be efficient, to exploit machinery, and to divide labor in order to produce quality goods in large quantities at highly competitive prices. James Keir (1735-1820), an industrial chemist and occasional adviser to Boulton, wrote:

It was always in Mr. Boulton's mind to convert such trades as were usually carried on by individuals into great manufactures by the help of machinery which might enable the articles to be made with greater precision and cheaper than those commonly sold [7]