Sheet Metal Souvenirs

(c) Vin Callcut 2002-2021.

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

Helpful comments are very welcome.

 

Souvenirs from Makers of Sheet Metal Work

electrotype4932   A raised electrotype copper relief picture framed in wood with a caption at the bottom reading: 'Compliments of Portland Electrotype & Stereotype Co.'  who were at 42 N. Ninth Street, Portland, Oregon.  This was probably a Christmas giveaway to clients of this company sometime between 1900 and 1910 although the company lasted until after 1927.  The illustration is a 19th Century scene of a mother working over the fireplace hearth, with one child awaiting his food and the other on Papa's knee. The detail is excellent and the copper has a rich golden brown patina under original lacquer during its hundred years of life. The plaque is 130 x 100mm (5 x 4”) and is in a frame that has seen life, being is no longer sealed on the back.

astonaston 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8893   Brass wire gauge issued by Aston Chain & Hook, Erdington, Birmingham.  There is a wire gauge on one side reading in Imperial inch decimals and Standard Wire Gauge and on the other side a ready reckoner giving a cost conversion from pence per pound to pounds per hundredweight and pounds per ton on the other. It is made from four different thin sheets of copper and brass with the top two on each side rotatable to give the relevant readings in the windows and measures 55mm (2¼”) in diameter.

ladle

ballarat

 

 

 

 

 

9110   Ladle, dish and circular tray made in copper and boldly marked by Soho Foundry, Ballarat, Australia.  These were made by two brothers who restarted a near derelict factory in 1972 using all the old belt driven machinery that had originally been obtained from the Soho works in Birmingham. The operation closed down in 1980, when one of the brothers died it was taken over by the State government as a museum.  The ladle is 195mm (7¾") long, dish is 140mm (5½") diameter.

thomason

thomason 3

 

 

 

 

2997   Pillbox promoting E. Thomason’s Manufactory, Birmingham. This is an early 19th century circular brass box with traces of gilding. The inside of the box has a very clear raised image of a fine large Georgian house with a central Greek pediment. Below that is the legend - also in tiny raised letters - 'E. Thomason's Manufactory Birmingham'. Because of the fine stamped brass open work of the lid it is possible that this was a box for smelling salts.  Thomason was a commercial rival and outspoken critic of Matthew Boulton. In the 1835 Wrighton Directory he is described as Sir Edward Thomason, jeweller, silversmith, glass cutter, plater and manufacturer of plated wares in Church Street.  He had another address at 20, Colmore Row.  By 1867 there is no sign of the factory in a Church Street nor his office, which was then a bank at 20, Colmore Row.

lirton

 

2990 6347 6425 These are the three designs of tea caddy that were made by Samuel Heath & Son as 'Lipton's Souvenir Tea Caddies' at times during the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, 5 & part of 1926.  The three different designs carry design registration numbers that were allocated to Samuel Heath & Sons and also have ‘Liptons’ underneath.  Each shows the symbolic Exhibition lion design is raised from the body and the lid has a well proportioned knop. The caddies were made of very thin brass put to good use so it is now unusual to find one without a few dents. 

Samuel Heath and Sons Limited have been brassfounders in Birmingham since before 1820 when they made brass bedsteads and candlesticks.  The company was floated on the Birmingham & West Midland Stock Exchange in 1890.  The family run firm have produced a wide variety of products over the years including candle snuffers, bedsteads, coffin furniture, locks & builders brassfoundry.  In the early days of the Birmingham motor industry they made motor lamps for coachbuilt car bodies.  They have occupied their premises at Cobden Works in Leopold Street, Birmingham since the 1860’s.

The height of the one shaped like an inverted pear is 135mm (5½"), weight 123g (4oz).

ankh9155   Copper button badge with relief of the 'ankh' symbol for copper that was produced for a meeting of the Polish Copper Institute in 1985. When allocating symbols to each of the metals that they knew, Greek philosophers adopted the ankh for copper as the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘eternal life’.  Diameter 10mm (3/8").

 

bead chain

 

 

5539      Bead Chain Manufacturing Company Copper PAPERWEIGHT

 

 

beacon

 

6020      Beacon display of curtain rail fittings.

 

 

 

aterite6283      ATERITE ASHTRAY Art Nouveau Copper Nickel Done in an Art Nouveau Style ... " Compliments of ATERITE COMPANY INC N.E.COR JOHN & WILLIAM STREETS NEW YORK CITY " on top surface. 'ATERITE' is a trade name for a copper-nickel alloy.  The back is impressed with the mark of SD CHILDS & CO. CHICAGO.

 

 

cox7003      The round dished pin tray is made of good quality brass, with a milled rim and a central pressed/stamped boss which reads " COX WILCOX & CO. BIRMINGHAM SMALL SPIRIT LAMPS & STOVES" with an oil lamp to the middle against a cross-hatched ground.A nice interesting advertising item!! It measures 4" diameter and just under 1/2" high. There is no mark as to manufacturer but I suspect it was made in Birmingham and dates from c.1900/10.   19th/20th Century Brass Advertising Pin Tray.  Cox Wilcox & Co. Birmingham-Lampmakers/Retailers.   Cox,Wilcox & Co.,  Ten Acre Works 1117 Pershore Road, Stirchley West Midlands B30 2YL 

cox wilcox

The scene above, this shot shows a view from the northern end of Stirchley looking towards Selly Park.  The narrow section of Pershore Road cuts through an area known as Ten Acres.  This was the home of Cox, Wilcox & Co. Ltd and I was delighted when a housing development in the area retained the frontage of the works building.  The yellow and red sign on the bicycle shop says, "Ride a Norman Nippy Moped - British Built".  Underneath, S.R.Pountney offers a way to finance the purchase, "Hire Purchase Arranged".  D J Norton.

dornach7068      Dornach souvenir cymbal celebrating 90 years of manufacturing from 1895-1985 and made from a sonorous alloy made within the Swissmetal Group. In 1855, a rolling mill and foundry, Bueche, Boillat & Cie., was founded in Reconvilier in the Bernese Jura. This company changed its name several times before the formation of Swissmetal: from 1960 it was called Boillat S.A. The first plant in Dornach was also a rolling mill and foundry operated under the name Schweizerische Metallwerke AG Dornach.  The Selve rolling mills in Thun were in the group until closed in 1991. Busch-Jaeger Metallwerk GmbH, Lüdenscheid. Germany is another group member.  Initially set up to meet the exacting needs of the Swiss watch industry, it now produces precision copper-alloy forms and profiles for the semiconductor electronics industry.

erm9126     Enfield Rolling Mills Ltd  (ERM) Laboratory Dinner Dance Ticket, Firs Hall, Green Lane, Edmonton 20th December 1967.  These tickets were etched from 'engraving copper'.  This was a silver-bearing copper with fine grain size rolled to close tolerances and good surface finish for use in the printing industry.  Unusually, when the manager of the Rolling Mills was invited to pay for his tickets he was reluctant to pay good money to buy back his own copper! 

 

 

derm clip4066      Delta Enfield Rolling Mills (DERM) banding clip for steel strapping.

 

 

 

 

 

erm

 

 Enfield Rolling Mills lapel badge used for staff identification on site.

 

 

 

 

 

gledhill

 

A promotional copper ashtray made by the coppersmiths Norman Gledhill & Co. Ltd of Blackpool. It is made from inner and outer pressings with a roll seam at the top giving an excellent light weight but rigid form with a diameter of 120mm (4 3/4") and a height of 45mm (1 3/4"). Norman and Joseph Gledhill started the company in 1926 in small workshop in Blackpool, making domestic copper cylinders and also hoodings for fireplaces in some local public houses with a staff of 2 coppersmiths, driver, salesperson and book-keeper. They were taken over by Delta Metal Company in the 1960s but were still managed by the two sons, Keith and Houghton Gledhill. The firm is still in business, independent again and still run by the brothers with help from others in the family making custom made cylinders to suit special applications. Besides the strong family involvement there are about 200 other employees. The Company's motto is "Only the best is acceptable". 

 

anderson

 

 

 A notepad with brass cover by Alderson & Gyde, Hall Street, Birmingham, makers of reproduction antique brassware at this time including good oil and candle lamps pre-1939, then hearth furniture, and catering supplies. At the rear it shows a Rd No 799985 which dates the design to 1935. (Thanks to Ruth Clowns)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashtray pressed by Burt Bros. of 7,8,9,10 @11 Edward Street, Parade, Birmingham to celebrate their 150th anniversary.  They were listed in a 1946 directory as braziers, coppersmiths, metal spinners, stampers and piercers and makers of sheet metal pressings.  Domestic copperware bearing their name can still be found in antique shops.

burt

burt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After