Birmingham Guild

and School of Handicrafts

(c) Vin Callcut 2002-2021.

Small extracts can be used with acknowledgements to 'Oldcopper.org' website.

Helpful comments are very welcome.

 

Birmingham Guild and School of Handicrafts  was started in the late 1880's at Kyre Hall with architect A S Dixon closely involved, then founded formally in 1890 with Montague Fordham as first director in Vittoria Street School for jewellers and silversmiths, set in Hockley, the centre of the jewellery .  It was modelled on Ashbee’s 1888 Guild and School of Handicraft. but due to commercial pressures there was a merger with E & R Gittins in 1905 which brought Llewelyn Roberts in to the organisation.  In 1919 there was a further merger with Hart, Son & Pearl.  Later it was taken over by Jones & Willis.  The name was still shown until 1950 in directories, the addresses being Grosvenor Road West and Sherbourne St., B16. 

birmingham guildBGH initials under a bowl.

 

 

 

The BGH monogram in a promotional ashtray.

The full name under a bowl.

The crest on a pillar in a cast brass ashtray.  This shield is mounted on an ashtray and commemorates an event in 1817.

 

 

Gittins Craftsmen Ltd., Ocean Chambers, Clifford Street, Lozells, Birmingham, merged with Birmingham School of Handicrafts 1905, merged again in 1919 with Hart, Son, Peard & Co. Ltd. which lasted until the late 1950s.

Hart, Son, Peard & Co. Ltd., Grosvenor Works, Grosvenor Street West, Birmingham (1907) and at Sherbourn Street, Birmingham (1950), art metal workers, merged with Gittins Craftsmen Ltd (Birmingham School of Handicrafts) in 1919, closed in the late 1950s.