Other Industries

Helpful comments are very welcome.


	A Few Souvenirs from Other Industries
	These are some of the many industrial souvenirs that are made from copper and brass to help convey the correct message.

	701 Arts and Crafts ashtray very well made in Birmingham Handicrafts College with logo in centre. 120mm diameter, 10mm lip, 60g.

	833 Cast brass circular ashtray with central pillar bearing enamelled badge of The Birmingham Guild Ltd, founded in 1817. Back of pillar has good scroll detail. 147mm dia x 155 high.

	4923 Elkington & Co Ltd were very proud of their range of cookware made from solid nickel with a casing of copper. This promotional miniature saucepan, or brandy warmer, has a very prominent full-size maker’s mark. The saucepan diameter is 65mm (2½”).

	4062 Cap badge of crossed hammers with motto suffix for the precious metals refiners, 'Johnson, Matthey and Co Ltd'. The back has a handle soldered at the top to convert it to horse brass shape. Height 80mm (3¼"). The firm was formed by Percival Norton Johnson in 1817 and moved to a head office in Hatton Garden in 1822. They expanded gradually and by the 1950s had manufacturing locations in Harlow, Wembley, Royston and abroad. Besides their big range of precious metals they had a secondary copper refinery in Enfield and rolled copper blocks to strip inlaid with precious metal contact materials at Harlow.

	8471 Johnson Matthey coined copper plaque with crossed hammers surrounded by ‘J.M.& Co. Ltd. London’. The size is 33 x 20mm (1¼ x ¾”), representing one of the smaller precious metal ingots.

	8111 A good example of promotional miniaturisation is provided by this Pyrene extinguisher. It bears the simple but effective message ‘Pyrene Kills Fire – Saves Life’. Height 130mm. (5¼”). The pump extinguisher was invented in Scotland but was first financed and made in New York and Delaware in 1907. While the original filling of carbon tetrachloride is not now allowed, the company makes many types of extinguishers to suit industry and domestic properties and all forms of transport.

	8794 Promotional oval ashtray that was on display in shops selling Hoover vacuum cleaners made in the classic art deco factory situated on the North Circular Road, London. It consists of two hot stampings joined with solder. The underside shows traces of previous silver plate now long since polished off the top. Width 115mm (4½”)

	8860 One of a pair of brass fireside spill holders promoting The Fletcher Russell Gas Co., Warrington, who made gas cooking stoves and heating radiators. The columns tubes are reeded and soldered to the pressed raised hexagonal brass bases lettered with 'Fletcher Russell & Co. Ltd. * Gas*. They probably date sometime between 1910 and 1935. They are 90mm (3½") tall with columns of 50mm (2") outside diameter. The bases are 100mm (4") across flats and well worn at the top corners through over-enthusiastic polishing. Thomas Fletcher switched from making tools for dentistry to the manufacture of gas cooking stoves and heating radiators and merged with Alexander and William Russell around 1895 in Warrington. The company lasted on its own until merging with Radiation Ltd in the 1950s and later into TI New World.

	2015 Notepaper box made of sheet brass complete with partly open front and extra flap inside the lid to act as a paper rest. Art nouveau pattern on lid and promotional message for Samuel M Langston Co, Camden and New Jersey ' Leadership by Design'. Width 145mm (5 3/4"), weight 250g (9oz), Underneath initialled 'EAH' 11/15/65, Makers mark 'Grammes, Allentown, PA.'

	3997 Promotional brass paper knife issued by the Bessemer Galvanizing Works in Birmingham Alabama who specialised in galvanising work on electrical power pylons and similar structural items.

	2lb Non-sparking copper-aluminium alloy hammer by Ampco and non-sparking aluminium bronze spanner. (4085 & 9148)

	5422 Austral Bronze Co., Australian Trade Mission Commemorative 1962 Copper/bronze dish (or small plate) 5" (12cm) in diameter. The medallion centre piece shows a ship passing under Sydney Harbour Bridge, with the words "Australian Trade Mission 1962, M.V. Chandpara" and on the reverse side it reads, "Rolled by The Austral Bronze Company PTY Limited, Australia. 112. Manufactured from Austral Copper and Austral Gilding Metal, 206."

	5549 Ludlow-Saylor Wire Company Paper Clip Mini Holder 1931. Advertising mini copper clip board. It is marked, The Ludlow-Saylor Wire Company, 1856-75th Anniversay-1931, St. Louis. It measures 5 3/4" x 4" and is in very good condition with some stain spots on the board.

	5564 ARCO, Atlantic Richfield Corporation, formed by merger in 1966 and acquired Anaconda Copper and Brass in 1977. It bought the 'Observer' British newspaper group in the same year. 3" x 2 1/4" SOLID BRASS BELT BUCKLE Hand Made in 1983 by Anacortes Brass Works Ltd. Anacortes, Wash USA, established 1970.

	6360 Lockerbie & Wilkinson brass ash tray c1880 shows Lockerbie and Wilkinson's 'Alexandra' Works in Tipton, Birmingham. The company, now called 'Locwil', is still going, and - remarkably - is still at the same address, even though they apparently now occupy just one small part of what was once an expansive manufacturing site. The company is now best known for its abattoir and meat processing equipment, but during the nineteenth century they were renowned for manufacturing brass toilet locks (particularly for the railways) and cast-iron items, including huge quantities of cast iron gutters and drain pipes. Given their background in brasswork, it's highly likely that this ash tray was made by L&W themselves. The embossing around the rim is beautifully crisp, and the rather worn image in the base is clear and crisply detailed if viewed on the reverse. The factory is shown surrounded by a quaint wooden fence, and behind it a majestic range of mountains shows how far we have all come! Looking on the reverse, you can make out a little hand cart in the yard, and a George flag fluttering on the smoky breeze. Measures 5 1/4" (13.5cm) max.

	6890 Pressed copper ashtray made by Tiptaff of Birmingham to promote ‘The Windsor, The Ideal Breakfast Room Grate’ for D Morgan & Sons, The Parade, Cardiff. Diameter 113mm (c4”).

	Cast brass ashtray lettered with the initials 'BBC', made to promote Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) which was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Baden, Switzerland in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1970 BBC took over the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon and in 1988 it merged with ASEA of Sweden to form ABB.

	This cast brass desk paperweight was made by A F Prentice Mfg Co to promote their 'Streamline' Style Zippers.

	An excellent desk paperweight in the form of a cast bronze miniature anchor presented by Halls Patent Anchor Co Ltd of 26, George Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire. It is 150mm (6") long and presumably this was an edition strictly limited to customers likely to want one full size.