Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
GEORGE RICHARDS ELKINGTON (1801 - 1865)
I take you now to early Victorian Brum. The scene: a manufactory near you ...
W H Ryder "Elkington Mason and Company Silver, Electro Plate, and Bronze Manufactory" (c 1850)
ELKINGTON, MASON AND CO.'S ELECTRO-PLATE WORKS,
Are situated on the west side of Newhall Street, and in addition to a fine façade to the street, forming a magnificent show room, occupy an extensive area, wherein the whole business of the manufactory is carried on. The remark, that the monuments of Birmingham are her manufactures, is nowhere more strikingly confirmed than in these works. It is not the mere fact that here are reproduced the finest works of Greece and Rome; that an artistic taste gives beauty and coherence to the skill of the artisan; that to articles of domestic use are imparted a form and finish harmonious in their proportions, and pleasing in their general effect; it is not simply the perfection of design and execution that renders this establishment famous wherever Birmingham manufactures are known, but it is the union of these with that marvellous discovery — plating by the agency of electricity — that gives more than a mere artistic interest to these works. Here the union of science, art, and manufactures is fully consummated, realising the fable of Pygmalion's statue of Galatea; the artist conceiving beautiful forms, the artisan giving them existence, and the Promethean fire, electricity, vivifying and glorifying the work. The reader need not be informed that the precipitation of metal by means of the galvanic battery is a discovery of yesterday; and it is no less universally known that the name of the firm whose establishment we are noticing, is intimately connected with the successful application of the phenomena of galvanic action to the purposes of manufacture. This discovery has effected a revolution in the production of articles in the finer metals, not only with respect to their surface beauty, but in the scope which this system of plating affords for the manufacture of boldly relieved forms and elaborate combinations. Nor is it less important that while it has added to the beauty of the manufacture, it has also cheapened production; thus bringing within the reach of a class hitherto precluded from their possession articles combining utility and beauty in an extraordinary degree.
A visit to the SHOW ROOMS is therefore very interesting. Entering a vestibule on the ground floor, the visiter is conducted to the fine suite of apartments forming the show rooms. Here the eye is for a time distracted by the multitude of articles in gold, silver, and bronze, profusely disposed around. Candelabra elaborate and simple, from the ornate combinations of floral ornament and mythological fable, to the modest water lily, or the lotus flower; epergnes chaste in design and matchless in execution; tea urns on the pure models of Greece, the quaint conceptions of an age still more remote, and in the more picturesque, if not more beautiful, style of Roman art. These prominent objects are diversified by dinner and tea services, salvers, inkstands, and articles of bijouterie, all remarkable for elegance of form and excellence of workmanship. The visiter will not fail to notice some articles in bronze, which are also produced by the agency of electricity. Before the discovery of this art the manufacture of bronzes was almost completely confined to France; for there, in addition to the facilities which an educated taste afforded for the perfect reproduction of statuary, abundance of skilled labour and cheap material gave the French a virtual monopoly of the trade. To use their own phrase, 'Nous avons changé tout cela' — we have changed all that — and the bronzes in this establishment are proofs of the fact. In perfection of drawing, the specimens in these rooms are quite equal to those of continental manufacture, and they surpass them in surface finish and in richness of colour. "The young Apollo," "Ajax," and several of the single figures of Thorwaldsen, are amongst the large specimens shewn. The small pieces embrace vases from Pompeii and Herculaneum, bassi relievi, medallions, and reduced copies of most of the great works of antiquity.
The mention of a magnificent and wholly unique service in gold, being copies of vases from Pompeii and Herculaneum, and adapted to the dinner, tea, and desert table, may well form an appropriate climax to this notice of the most attractive, and as we have shown, for many reasons, most interesting of our Birmingham manufactories.
I take you now to early Victorian Brum. The scene: a manufactory near you ...
W H Ryder "Elkington Mason and Company Silver, Electro Plate, and Bronze Manufactory" (c 1850)
ELKINGTON, MASON AND CO.'S ELECTRO-PLATE WORKS,
Are situated on the west side of Newhall Street, and in addition to a fine façade to the street, forming a magnificent show room, occupy an extensive area, wherein the whole business of the manufactory is carried on. The remark, that the monuments of Birmingham are her manufactures, is nowhere more strikingly confirmed than in these works. It is not the mere fact that here are reproduced the finest works of Greece and Rome; that an artistic taste gives beauty and coherence to the skill of the artisan; that to articles of domestic use are imparted a form and finish harmonious in their proportions, and pleasing in their general effect; it is not simply the perfection of design and execution that renders this establishment famous wherever Birmingham manufactures are known, but it is the union of these with that marvellous discovery — plating by the agency of electricity — that gives more than a mere artistic interest to these works. Here the union of science, art, and manufactures is fully consummated, realising the fable of Pygmalion's statue of Galatea; the artist conceiving beautiful forms, the artisan giving them existence, and the Promethean fire, electricity, vivifying and glorifying the work. The reader need not be informed that the precipitation of metal by means of the galvanic battery is a discovery of yesterday; and it is no less universally known that the name of the firm whose establishment we are noticing, is intimately connected with the successful application of the phenomena of galvanic action to the purposes of manufacture. This discovery has effected a revolution in the production of articles in the finer metals, not only with respect to their surface beauty, but in the scope which this system of plating affords for the manufacture of boldly relieved forms and elaborate combinations. Nor is it less important that while it has added to the beauty of the manufacture, it has also cheapened production; thus bringing within the reach of a class hitherto precluded from their possession articles combining utility and beauty in an extraordinary degree.
A visit to the SHOW ROOMS is therefore very interesting. Entering a vestibule on the ground floor, the visiter is conducted to the fine suite of apartments forming the show rooms. Here the eye is for a time distracted by the multitude of articles in gold, silver, and bronze, profusely disposed around. Candelabra elaborate and simple, from the ornate combinations of floral ornament and mythological fable, to the modest water lily, or the lotus flower; epergnes chaste in design and matchless in execution; tea urns on the pure models of Greece, the quaint conceptions of an age still more remote, and in the more picturesque, if not more beautiful, style of Roman art. These prominent objects are diversified by dinner and tea services, salvers, inkstands, and articles of bijouterie, all remarkable for elegance of form and excellence of workmanship. The visiter will not fail to notice some articles in bronze, which are also produced by the agency of electricity. Before the discovery of this art the manufacture of bronzes was almost completely confined to France; for there, in addition to the facilities which an educated taste afforded for the perfect reproduction of statuary, abundance of skilled labour and cheap material gave the French a virtual monopoly of the trade. To use their own phrase, 'Nous avons changé tout cela' — we have changed all that — and the bronzes in this establishment are proofs of the fact. In perfection of drawing, the specimens in these rooms are quite equal to those of continental manufacture, and they surpass them in surface finish and in richness of colour. "The young Apollo," "Ajax," and several of the single figures of Thorwaldsen, are amongst the large specimens shewn. The small pieces embrace vases from Pompeii and Herculaneum, bassi relievi, medallions, and reduced copies of most of the great works of antiquity.
The mention of a magnificent and wholly unique service in gold, being copies of vases from Pompeii and Herculaneum, and adapted to the dinner, tea, and desert table, may well form an appropriate climax to this notice of the most attractive, and as we have shown, for many reasons, most interesting of our Birmingham manufactories.
Last edited by a moderator:
