Lost Trades Nᵒ.15: John Wilkes' Beautiful Locks & 'keys so finely wrought'

Birmingham made 'detector' lock from c. 1680.
V&A Collections.

This brass lock was made in Birmingham in about 1680 by John Wilkes and is a fascinating piece in seventeenth-century technology in being able to record how may times it has been opened through the turning of the numbered dial. It would therefore ward off any potential thieves and would have been of great benefit to any business with employees. On the front are written the lines:

If I had ye gift of tongue 
I would declare and do no wrong 
Who ye are ye come by stealth 
To impare my Master's wealth.

Tour of Lost Birmingham Nᵒ.57: John Wilkes' House (Bull Street, 1709)

The Quaker Meeting House (centre building) on Bull Street.
Conjectural image of what it would have looked like after opening, c. 1702.
Held by Birmingham Archive.

John Wilkes was a lockmaker living in Birmingham from about 1674 (aged about 23) till his death in 1709. Many of his locks survive and can be seen in a gallery here. In his will was an inventory of the contents of the family home and John's workshop, which gives some insight into life in the early 1700s for an artisan. The Wilkes' owned maps, pictures and books, as well as a 'Clock & Case' and a looking glass. There was also a good range of furniture, so this was a comfortable home.

Georgian Terraces: The Square

'The Square' was an early eighteenth-century urban development completed in about 1713. This was elite living, including fine townhouses which were bought and lived in by some of the town's wealthiest inhabitants.