J and F Pool Hayle Copper

(c) Vin Callcut 2002-2021.

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

Helpful comments are very welcome.

 

The Cornish Hand Wrought Copper Company was founded in the 1880s in Copperhouse, Hayle, a Cornish port town with a strong engineering tradition serving the mining industry.  hayleTheir products were 'entirely hand hammered'.  Their inspiration came from the copper ore mined locally but supplies of rolled sheet made from refined copper mostly came from mills in Birmingham.  In 1908 they were taken over by a company that had been formed by James and Frederick Pool in 1862.

 

 

J & F Pool Ltd, Copperhouse, Hayle, Cornwall.  Their copperware was to some extent similar to that made in the Newlyn tradition but most of the basic forming was cheaply made with jigs in machines. 

poolMany items were hand finished.  It was usually unmarked.  A London Agent - Henry Campbell, 64, Basinghall St. London E. C., was engaged in 1909 and a new catalogue produced.  This included most of the decorative copperware in popular demand but not cookware.  Products included cabinets, caddies, canopies, clocks, coal hods, curbs and curb suites, door furniture, fenders, fire irons, fire screens,  jardinières, inkwells and other deskware, gongs, jugs, letter holders, log boxes, matchholders, mirror and photograph frames, nameplates, plaques, slipper boxes, spill vases, spirit kettles, stands, sundries and trays.

Their production of copperwares dwindled rapidly during and after the 1914-18 war so that they could concentrate on other products.  They were registered as engineers, iron & brass founders, metal perforators, wire weavers, tinsmiths and coppersmiths.  Their papers from 1896 - 1996 are in the Cornwall Record Office.

Charles Eustace was at one time a wages clerk with Pool's factory but in the late 1930 set up a copperworks with John Eustace in Hayle to revive the craft of coppersmithing. 

 

In Penzance, the Penlee House Museum has a display.