Lost Trades Nᵒ.10: Filigree, a Forgotten Birmingham Craft

Illustration by the author.

The Encyclopaedia of Geography (1834) highlighted the main trades of Birmingham as ‘pins, buttons, nails, paper trays [probably japanned papier-mâché tea trays], filigree, and toys’.*1* All of these are well-known Birmingham trades dating back to, at least, the eighteenth century, but filigree stands out because it does not have the same association with Birmingham as the other trades.

The manufacture of filigree used flattened, usually silver, wire soldered to form decorative and delicate patterns, usually in the making of jewellery and small boxes. These small filigree items were popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and many examples survive. Silver filigree, though, was not required to be marked so its place of production can be uncertain. Yet, there is evidence to support The Encyclopaedia of Geography that filigree was, indeed, a prominent Birmingham trade. 

Curious Machines: Ralph Heaton's Button Shank Machine (c. 1794)

c. 1794 button shank machine at Thinktank Museum, Birmingham.

Between the 1790s and about 1807 Ralph Heaton (1755-1832) ran a brass foundry on Slaney Street, so making a variety of brass wares, where he also made rose engines. A biographical description of Ralph's stated that he had: 

invented a most curious machine for making of button shanks, of so complicated a nature that although he did not obtain a patent for it, and admits every mechanic readily to see it, there is not one who could ever construct another.*

The button shank was at the back of a button, and was what attached the button to clothing. The machine was so 'curious' and 'complicated' because it worked in a fully automated process. Richard Prosser, in 1881, described the process as 'of great interest as being probably the first example of a machine in which the material is subjected to a series of independent operations succeeding each other at regulated intervals of time'.** The machine was powered by steam.

Although the article stated otherwise, Ralph did obtain a patent for his machine, in 1794, and examples of his curious machines are held at London Science Museum and Thinktank Birmingham. 

c. 1794 button shank machine in the London Science Museum. 

NOTES

* The Kaleidescope (Liverpool: E. Smith, 1821), p. 325. 

** Richard Prosser, Birmingham Inventors and Inventions (1881).

Birmingham Objects: Catherine Hutton's Purse

Purse made by Catherine Hutton in the early 1800s.

Catherine Hutton was the daughter of the Birmingham's first historian William Hutton; she never married, and after the family home was burnt down in the riots of 1791, she took to company less and less. Two years after the riots she wrote to a friend: "Last Monday I broke the spell by visiting the Miss Mainwarings, and I was found so rusticated, so antiquaited, that the first thing they did was to take my cap to pieces and make it up in a different form. Now, mark my resolution. I visited three families on the three following days, and I have engaged myself for two evenings next week. Be so good when you write to say something about fashion, that I, who used to be an example, may not be quite a scare-crow".

Like her father, she was a prolific writer, and was putting pen to paper right up to her death at the ripe old age of 91. She was a particular fan of Jane Austen, as she explains "I have been going through a course of novels by lady authors, beginning with Mrs Brooke and ending with Miss Austen, who is my especial favourite. I had always wished, not daring to hope, that I might be something like Miss Austen; and, having finished her works, I took to my own, to see if I could find any resemblance". In 1813 she published her first novel, The Miser Married (view here), and other fiction was published in magazines, as well as articles and letters she wrote surrounding everyday matters.

The purse, above, is part of the Hutton collection at Birmingham Archive.

Catherine Hutton at ages 43 and 83, she was born 11 February 1756 and died 13 March 1846.

Birmingham Objects: William Hutton's Handkerchief

Tucked in the archive I found this handkerchief that once belonged to Birmingham's first historian, William Hutton. It would have probably been made in the mid 1700s, and he passed it down to his son, Thomas. I was surprised by the size of the handkerchief, it was about 1 1/2 metres square, and made from a very fine material, which I presume to be silk. It is lovely that these objects were handed through the generations, although, I personally wouldn't want to be given one of my dad's old hankies! Of course, the Georgian handkerchief could also be worn around the neck, which is probably why it is the size that it is.

William Hutton was very active in Birmingham life during his lifetime, he had moved to the town in 1750 and opened a book, stationary and paper shop on High Street, and was one of Birmingham's many examples of individuals who came to the town with little and did very well for themselves.

You can find out more about him here, he was also a 'commissioner' passing judgement at the Court of Requests, where the fate of debtors was decided.


William Hutton with books, dog, and his home at Bennetts Hill
in the background.

The First Known Transfer Printed Enamel (c. 1750) & the Development of Transfer Printing

 

Success to the British Fisheries, 1750-51, probably Birmingham.

12.4 cm wide, 9.8 cm high held by the V&A.

This is the earliest known example of the transfer-printing process on enamel. The transfer-print is in red, on white enamel with a copper base, and framed in a gilt metal frame.

As an early example, the process hasn’t been mastered yet, and the lines were a little powdery and needed to be over-painted in places. The plaque is held by the V&A, who state that it 'commemorates the foundation by Royal Charter of the "Free British Fishery Society" or British Herring Fishery Company, on 25 October 1750'. The design is similar to other Birmingham enamels of this period, including the picturing of swans, which was a re-used motif on Birmingham enamels.

Engravers known to be working on producing prints to transfer onto enamel at this time were John Brooks and Robert Hancock.*

Development of Transfer Printing

Enamel plaque of the King of Prussia by J. Sadler of Liverpool, c. 1758.
Sold at Bonham's in 2009 for £1,920.

Transfer printing was the process of applying copperplate prints to the surface of enamel. It was possibly developed in Liverpool in about 1749, as was claimed by two engravers of the town, John Sadler and Guy Green.*14* Whether this was true or not, John Sadler produced a variety of transfer printed enamels till about the 1770s (image above), as well as prints on earthenware.

The earliest known surviving transfer printed enamel (above) is generally thought to have been made in Birmingham. In 1751 a Birmingham-based engraver, John Brooks, attempted to take out a patent for the process but a year later apologised in the local newspaper, Aris's Birmingham Gazette, that 'he never intended to encourage a Monopoly in that Branch of the Trade', suggesting that it was not his invention and was already being practiced in Birmingham.*15* Brooks later moved to London and formed a partnership with Stephen Theodore Jansen and Henry Delamain in setting up the Battersea enamel manufactory producing printed enamels.*16* 

Base of snuff-box with transfer print of owl and birds, c. 1758-60.
Probably Birmingham made, see more on this print here.

The trade continued in Birmingham under several makers, and one of the largest enamel makers was John Taylor, possibly employing up to 200 people across the enamelling and gilding trades. As well a painting enamel boxes, Taylor's manufactory produced transfer-printed enamel. Lady Shelburne visited the enamelling part of Taylor's factory in 1766 and described the transfer printing of enamel:

At Mr. Taylor's we met again, and he made and enamel'd a landscape on the top of a box before us, which he afterwards gave me as a curiosity from my having seen it done. The method of doing it is this: a stamping instrument managed only by one woman first impresses the picture on paper, which paper is then laid even upon a piece of white enamel and rubbed hard with a knife or instrument like it, till it is marked upon the box. Then there is spread over it with a brush some metallic colour reduced to a fine powder which adheres to the moist part, and, by putting it afterwards into an oven for a few minutes, the whole is completed by fixing the colour.*17*

The Battersea factory in London was open between 1753 and 1756. Although transfer printing had been conducted in Birmingham for at least two years already, many of the early Birmingham transfer prints were overpainted, so Battersea goods were the first time London shoppers saw and bought transfer-printed enamels. Horace Walpole wrote to his friend Richard Bentley in 1755 sending him ‘trifling snuff box’ which he sent to a friend as a ‘sample of the new manufacture at Battersea, which is done with copper-plates' and Walpole had his own ‘cabinet of enamels’ where he displayed intriguing samples of the manufacture.*18* After the closure of the Battersea factory in 1756, they advertised their remaining stock for sale, which included:

A quantity of beautiful enamel, coloured and uncoloured, […] and never yet exhibited to the public view, consisting of snuff boxes of all sizes, of great variety of patterns, […], very proper ornaments for the cabinets of the curious, bottle-tickets, with chains for all sorts of liquors and of different subjects, watch-cases, tooth-pick-cases, coat and sleeve buttons and other curiosities.*19*

Bottle ticket, probably Battersea made 1753-1756.
Sold at Bonhams in 2019 for £956.

Notes

* The plaque (top image) is sometimes claimed to have been designed by the London-based engraver Louis Philippe Boitard, but this is not currently evidenced. Victorian and early 1900s scholars thought that only London produced these goods, which has since been disproved. See Susan Benjamin, English Enamel Boxes (1978).

Japanned Things: Fire Balloons - The First Small Step

~Japanned tray depicting Mr Sadler’s ascension from Birmingham's Crescent on 13th October 1823. From the BMAG collection on display at the Birmingham History Galleries. ~

Ballooning was one of the most novel entertainments of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as it marked the beginning of man taking off from the planet; a new and exciting prospect. The first aviators were adventurers and daredevils, made all the more exciting by the flying balloons that they ascended in being called fire balloons. They were simply hot air balloons, but the idea of going to see a fire balloon take off definitely had a more dramatic sound to it. The first Englishman to take off was James Saddler (1753-1828) who took flight in London in October 1784 (the first Englishwoman, Mrs. Sage, ascended in June 1785). The spectacle spurred others to take balloons and travel around the country to put on balloon ascensions for paying spectators. A Mr. Harper was the first to arrive in Birmingham, in January 1785, taking off twice, the second time from a tennis court in Coleshill Street.* Ballooning could be a dangerous feat, accidents did occur, but although often not fatal, Mr. Sadler's own son, Windham Sadler, was killed in an accident in 1824.*

It was not till October 7th, 1811, that Mr. Sadler arrived to a great crowd in Birmingham's Vauxhall Gardens; it was his 21st ascent and a commemorative coin, left, was struck for the notable event.

By the time of the balloon ascension in 1823 commemorated on the tray, above, James Saddler was 70 years old, and it was one of his sons (either Windham or his other aeronaut son, John) who took flight from the Crescent.** The ropes were held by local school boys; the crowd paying 3s 6d each, all apart from a Mr. James Busby who paid 20 guineas to take his place inside the balloon's basket. The massive crowd filled the Crescent with 'shouts of an almost countless multitude';* a Mr. G. R. Bird, who ran a wharf on the canal near the Crescent, and who may have invested some money in the day's events, recorded in his diary that at 'a quarter before 3 o'clock Mr Sadler Junior went up in a fire balloon from the Crescent accompanied by James Busby, [and it] was seen for 20 minutes, took direction of Hagley and descended safe in a field near Kinver or Enville. The balloon was up 25 minutes and went 17 mile'. The balloon must have been quite a sight, not just for the paying spectators, but also anyone in the near vicinity. It was a rare sight as well, and must have captured the imagination of the country, as from at least 1787 stage coaches began being called 'balloon coaches'. We think of a balloon ride today as slow and relaxing travel, but in the late eighteenth century this was the fastest mode of inland transport (if not the most accurate) and perhaps coach proprietors used the name to assert their coaches as being speedy vehicles.  They were fire balloons after all!

NOTES
What to wear for a balloon ascent, 1785.
* References on request
** The Crescent was a development of smart town houses, planned to be like the Crescent in Bath, but never completed.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.25: Depriving Many a Poor Creature of Liberty (High Street)

Door of the Debtor's Prison, from the exhibition
Birmingham: it's people, it's history at BMAG.  

Visit the now demolished Debtor's Prison and the building that housed it, here. Find out about the Birmingham History Galleries which display this piece, here.

The plaque at the top of the door states "THIS DEBTORS PRISON DOOR STOOD IN HIGH STREET, BIRMINGHAM, DEPRIVING MANY A POOR CREATURE OF LIBERTY. NOTE THE BARS THRO WHICH CHARITABLE PASSERS-BY DROPPED COINS TO THE INMATES". Unlike the main prison, there was alot more sympathy towards the inmates in the debtor's prison, as many in business could be at risk of ending up there if their business dealings did not go well. The Debtor's Prison was tucked down an alley on Birmingham's High Street, inside the Court of Requests building.

Lost Trades: The Coins of John Gregory Hancock

Angelsey Druid coin, die engraved by Hancock, struck
in Wales.

John Gregory Hancock was a die-engraver and coin manufacturer and was thought one of the finest engravers, not just in Birmingham, but world-wide. The process of die-engraving involved incising the image in reverse (including dimensionally in reverse) in metal so that a coin could be struck from it. John engraved the die for the 1792 Washington cent, which is a very skilful example of the trade (see below, left), and made print engravings for Bisset’s Magnificent Directory. John was also the first to patent the process of paper embossing in 1796 (and may have invented it)* which is the method of raising a pattern or picture on paper by pressing it between two metal dies.

A lovely example of a coin is one produced by Hancock’s son (also called John Gregory Hancock, see above right) in 1800 when he was only seven years old. It shows a bust of Shakespeare, and was probably a product of Hancock senior handing down his skills to his young son. Coins were not just produced as part of general currency, but they were used by businesses to advertise, to commemorate people or events, as special currency such as workhouse tokens, as medals and to promote political messages (as with the medal below). The process of die-engraving is complex, dark must be engraved as light; raised sections as dropped ones, which requires a great deal of technical skill.


Medal cast in 1800, die by Hancock. The medal states
'THE UNCHARITABLE MONOPOLIZER WILL STARVE THE
POOR' and around the globe is written 'TAKE NOT WHAT
WAS MADE FOR ALL'. The band on the figures head states
'POSSESSION'. 

NOTES
A Thomas Hancock was an engraver (art) working at 14 Congreve Street. He worked on Bisset's directory as well, which suggests that he could have been related to John Gregory Hancock. Thomas was the son, or another relation of renowned Worcestershire engraver Robert Hancock, who was apprenticed to Birmingham's George Anderton in 1746.
A William Hancock produced and patented the first metal rope in Birmingham which made coal mining safer as metal was less likely to break.
* References on request.

A Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.13: James Bisset's 'Objects of Curiosity'

A promotional coin struck for James Bisset advertising his own museum and other 'objects of curiosity' in Birmingham. Circa 1800.

Side A.

OBJECTS OF CURIOSITY AND CONSEQUENCE, TO BE SEEN IN BIRMINGHAM.

---------

BISSET'S MUSEUM, AND GRAND PICTURE GALLERY.

---------

CLAY'S PATENT PAPER MANUFACTORY.

---------

RICHARDS'S GRAND MAGAZINE, AND TOYSHOP.

---------

THOMASON'S EXTENSIVE MANUFACTORIES, AND ELEGANT SHEW ROOMS.

---------

WHITMORE'S ENGINE WORKS.

---------

NELSON'S STATUE.

---------

PANORAMA.

---------

THEATRE ROYAL.

Side B.

BIRMINGHAM MANUFACTORIES.

ARMY

ACCOUTREMENT.

BUTTON, BUCKLE,

GLASS & CHINA.

JAPAN, AND PAPER MACHEE.

NEEDLE, AND FISH HOOK.

STEEL, GOLD, SILVER, AND GILT TOY.

SWORD, GUN, & PISTOL.

TEA URN, WHIP, PIN, & WIRE.

TYPE, CAST IRON, & BRASS FOUNDRY.

---------

PRINCIPAL INNS.

ROYAL HOTEL.

HEN & CHICKENS, STORK,

& SWAN HOTELS.

CASTLE, DOG, GEORGE,

SARACENS HEAD, & UNION

INNS.

SHAKESPEAR TAVERN.

Birmingham Objects: Thomason's Famous Corkscrew (patented 1802)

Object Focus: Corkscrew probably made by Edward Thomason labelled with Charles Jones's mark to be sold in his Pantechnetheca.

The design of this corkscrew was by Edward Thomason was a silversmith with a large manufactory on Church Street, he patented his design for a new corkscrew in 1802 and it made him a small fortune. The innovation was that the device pulled the cork out as it screwed.