Steel Toy Maker

[KarenM]

Any ideas where one may work if according to the 1861 census you were a steel toy maker and lived at 3 Court #5, Great Hampton Row?

Thanks
Karen

 

[Pomgolian]

Karen Hope this is of help...

The Birmingham toymakers

First of all, we need to understand that in this context the term ‘toy’ referred to a very wide variety of small, and often quite fancy, artifacts made in a wide variety of metals. Sketchley's Directory of 1767 illustrates the range of the toymakers' output:

'These artists are divided into several branches as the Gold and Silver Toymakers, who make trinkets, seals, tweezer and toothpick cases, smelling bottles, snuff boxes, and filigree work such as toilets, tea chests, inkstands etc, etc. The Tortoiseshell toymaker makes a beautiful variety of the above and other articles; as does the Steel, who make corkscrews, buckles, buttons, draw and other boxes, snuffers, watch chains, stay hooks, sugar [tongs] etc, etc; and almost all these are likewise made in various metals.'

The toymakers produced all these items in prodigious quantities, usually without the aid of anything we would call machinery and often using only the simplest of tools... By the time the Colmore estate was developed, toymaking had been established and growing in importance in Birmingham for at least a hundred years and the industry had developed some very singular characteristics, which still survive in large measure in today’s Jewellery Quarter.

... The trade was split into very small units, being carried out mainly by self-employed people working on their own, or by small family businesses in which the members of the family would often form the whole or part of the workforce, sometimes doing the same jobs as, and sharing a workbench with, their employees.

Chris

 

[gingerjon]

a steel toy maker would have made small metal objects not toys as we know them they would have the making of “toys”, small decorative objects from silver, bronze and other metals


1. Toys in Birmingham

In the 18th and 19th centuries the manufacture of “toys” was a major industry in Birmingham. But these “toys” had nothing to do with children’s games. The term “Birmingham toys” refers to a multitude of small, decorative personal accessories. Their production provided work for thousands, gained major export markets and led to the development of manufacturing techniques which could be applied in other fields. Birmingham’s first directory, Sketchley’s Directory of 1767, lists 100 firms in the “toy” and related trades and describes the industry as follows:
this is a section frfom Birmingham toys
….for the information of Strangers we shall here observe, that these Articles are divided into several Branches, as the Gold and Silver Toy Makers, who make Trinkets, Seals, Tweezer and Tooth Pick cases, Smelling Bottles, Snuff Boxes, and Filigree Work, such as Toilets, Tea Chests, Inkstands, etc. etc. The Tortoise Toy maker, makes a beautiful variety of the above and other Articles; as does also the Steel, who makes Cork Screws, Buckles, Draw and other Boxes, Snuffers, Watch Chains, Stay Hooks, Sugar Knippers, etc., and almost all these are likewise made in various Metals, and for Cheapness, Beauty and Elegance no Place in the world can vie with them.

 

[KarenM]

Thank you both for that information.

I should know by now, never to assume in my genealogy research, I would of never thought a toy maker could mean and do so much.

Karen

 

[AnnieB]

My great grandfather was a steel toy maker. Would this have been a reserved occupation during WW1? I know steel workers were but was this occupation included?

 

[Eric Gibson]

If his skills were transferrable to war work quite possibly