Metal Things: Personalised Steel Boxes (mid-1700s)

Steel snuff box of James Thornton, c. 1740-1765.
Held at Birmingham Museum.

The manufacture of steel boxes was a major part of Birmingham's artisan trades from at least the 1710s. Edwards' Birmingham toyshop (a shop selling small Birmingham wares such as buckles, watchchains etc) stocked, in 1733, one dozen steel toothpick cases and nineteen steel tobacco boxes, all certainly made locally if not in Birmingham then the wider West Midland towns. These boxes would have originally been highly polished, which was an important part of their appeal.

Most were decoratively engraved and some included the names of the owners. Here are some personalised steel boxes, this first one belonging to James Thornton.

Robert Jaffray's Box 

Steel snuff-box, held by the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.
Length: 12.7cm. Width: 6cm. Height: 1.9cm.

A steel tobacco-box (some suggest a hand warmer due to the holes) with a sliding top, engraved with rococo scrolling with the name 'Robert Jaffray' and the date 1743. The underside of the inner compartment (no image) is stamped 'LAKIN'.

A Thomas Lakin was a toymaker in Birmingham; he took on apprentice William Parkes in 1750, for a large sum of £50. His will, proved in 1761 (at the National Archives), described him as a candlestick and toy maker.


Thomas Worral's Box

Steel snuff-box, held by the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.
Height: 2.8cm. Width: 8.2cm. Depth: 7.6cm.

A steel snuff-box engraved with a bird and the name 'Thomas Worral', dated 1757. The box opens with a push-button. Probably Birmingham or Midland made.

A maker's mark appears on the base (see below), with either the initials 'MC' or 'IC', the latter would stand for 'JC'. No Birmingham toymakers can be found with the initials MC at this time, but a Joseph Cooper was a toymaker on New Street at the right time.

More Boxes Below

Richard Chantrey's Box

Steel snuff or tobacco box, held by the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.
Length: 10.16cm. Width: 7.3cm. Depth: 2.54cm.

A steel snuff-box, engraved with the inscription 'Richard Chantrey / Joyner Birmingham / 1750'. There is no maker's name, but the inscription highly suggests that the box was Birmingham made.

The Richard Chantry or Chantrey which this box belonged to can be found taking apprentices as a joiner or joyner between the 1730s and 1750s. He married Sarah Silk at Harborne church on 7 May 1723, and after Sarah's death in 1727 he married Sarah Nash in 1744. It seems that he was buried on 9th January 1764 at St. Philip's church (now the cathedral).

Apprentices: Jonathon Stow (1730) £10; Horsley Wheatley (1730) £6.6s; Lucas Nash (1751) £10.