An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue. - book reviews

Magazine Antiques, May, 1997 by Alfred Mayor

A hardware catalogue

At the headwaters of the broad river of mail-order catalogues that eddies through every mailbox today is a pristine trickle of crisp engravings issued in England in the eighteenth century to advertise the brass furniture mounts made in Birmingham. Contrary to current catalogues, these sheets, sometimes bound, mention no manufacturer and bear no date. However, each mount is numbered and it seems likely that they are shown actual size for the convenience of the customer.

One such catalogue exists in five versions in American repositories, but curiously not in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which has other trade catalogues. The version reproduced in facsimile in this book is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It consists of 115 numbered plates measuring 6 by 9 1/4 inches and 10 unnumbered oversized plates, which are here reproduced in a reduced size. The author has named this and the four other surviving versions the Janet catalogue as a tribute to Janet Byrne of the Metropolitan Museum's print department, whom he thanks for her unfailing assistance throughout the production of the facsimile.

The contents of the catalogue would certainly have made any eighteenth-century cabinetmaker as happy as a pig in clover. Here are drawer handles and pulls of every description, keyhole escutcheons, latches, hooks, castors, hinges, pulleys, curtain hooks, column bases and capitals, candleholders, finials, dock stands, fittings for tea chests, nails, bolts, and all manner of ornaments.

What is probably the earliest version of this catalogue is in the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island. It has 79 numbered plates and 8 unnumbered oversized plates, and is most likely the one discussed in ANTIQUES, February 1931, pp. 102-105.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, has a copy with 94 numbered plates and 8 unnumbered oversized plates. It is inscribed "Sam Curwen. Sent to me in January 1774" and "Robert Peele His Book 1802." Curwen was a Salem hardware merchant; Peele has not been identified. This edition must date no later than 1773 to allow for the transatlantic crossing.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City has a copy that originally had 117 numbered plates and no oversized plates. However, it has been rebound, and the first plate is missing.

Finally, the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Winterthur, Delaware, has a bound copy in which the last page is numbered "139," yet the copy has only 115 pages.

Because these catalogues are great rarities, it is gratifying to have the present facsimile available to furniture historians and collectors everywhere.