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Lot Essay
We are extremely grateful to Yvonne Jones for her assistance in cataloguing this casket.
This intriguing japanned papier mâché casket was presented to Birmingham’s Overseers of the Poor in 1784, probably to mark the end of their inaugural year. In 1783, a Local Act ‘for the better management of Birmingham Workhouse’ had allowed ratepayers the right to elect six Overseers to control its finances, put out apprentices and deal with matters of bastardy, and 108 Guardians to make daily visits and to check upon its management; in practice their duties often overlapped. Since these offices were unpaid and only Birmingham ratepayers assessed above £10 a year were eligible, Overseers and Guardians were generally drawn from the town’s most prosperous men. Over the course of almost fifty years, and possibly coinciding with a significant development in provision for the poor, the casket underwent various alterations and additions, which are detailed in the inscriptions to the inside of the hinged cover.
For an extensive article unlocking the early history of this casket by Ms. Jones, please see www.christies.com
The Overseers’ Casket
Yvonne Jones
This intriguing japanned papier mâché casket was presented to Birmingham’s Overseers of the Poor in 1784, probably to mark the end of their inaugural year.1 In 1783, a Local Act ‘for the better management of Birmingham Workhouse’ had allowed ratepayers the right to elect 6 Overseers to control its finances, put out apprentices and deal with matters of bastardy, and 108 Guardians to make daily visits and to check upon its management; in practice their duties often overlapped. Since these offices were unpaid and only Birmingham ratepayers assessed above £10 a year were eligible, Overseers and Guardians were generally drawn from the town’s most prosperous men.2
Over the course of almost fifty years, and possibly coinciding with a significant development in provision for the poor, the casket underwent various alterations and additions. Crucially, these adaptations provide the necessary clues to unlocking the early history of the casket.
The story begins with the finely engraved oval silver plate in the centre of the inside lid. It shows the seated figure of Concordia – the personification of harmony and accord – encircled by a scrolling ribbon inscribed The Gift of Henry Clay Esqr. to J. Rabone, J. Marston, B. Redfern, S. Oatridge, S. Bellamy, T. Grundy, Overseers in the Year MDCCLXXXIV. Among these names are some of Birmingham’s eminent manufacturers at the time.
The names do not appear to be listed in any particular order, but the Minutes of the Guardians3 meetings shed some light on matters. Twelve Committees were appointed in the first year and each was allotted a specific month during which its members were to attend weekly meetings. Of the dedicatees, ‘B. Redfern’, appointed to the second Committee which met in September 1783, was first to be mentioned in the Minutes, and ‘T.Grundy’, a member of the June 1784 meeting, was the last. Curiously, the Minutes do not record receipt of Clay’s gift but the date of Grundy’s appointment makes it likely it was presented at the end of July, 1784.
Although Samuel Bellamy and Henry Clay are of the greatest relevance here, it may be helpful first to consider the trades of the other men named on the plaque. Redfern, was almost certainly Bartholomew Redfern of B. M. & W. Redfern, gunmakers and factors; Samuel Oatridge, was a merchant and factor4, and Joseph Rabone, a button- and toymaker. Marston was most likely John Marston a plated buckle-maker and brass founder, though Joseph Marston, a plumber, glazier, glass-cutter and painter cannot be ruled out; Thomas Grundy was a merchant and partner in the firm of Grundy, Russell and Grundy.
The plate is signed ‘Bellamy Sculp.’ at left along its lower edge, for Samuel Bellamy, himself an Overseer and a Birmingham engraver, chape- and buckle-maker.5 In 1777, he took out a patent for stamping metals with John Marston – a link which possibly increases the likelihood that it was John, the metal worker, who was an Overseer, rather than Joseph, the plumber. By 1785, Bellamy was listed as a button-maker.
In terms of the casket, Henry Clay6 (1737-1812) is the most important of those named. As Britain’s leading japanner of papier mâché, he enjoyed royal patronage, styling himself from 1777 as Japanner to the Queen, and from 1781, as Japanner to his Majesty, and often marked his products accordingly. The casket appears not to bear the stamp of his workshop but this is possibly because any such mark was obscured when the casket was altered. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that it was made by Clay - as an astute businessman, he was unlikely to have turned to a rival manufacturer to make such an important piece.
Clay was not the first to make and japan papier mâché in Britain,7 but the novelty of his patent of 1772 (#1027), secured the commercial future of the product. The patent was for ‘Making in Paper High Varnished Pannels or Roofs for Coaches, and all Sorts of Wheel Carriages and Sedan Chairs, Pannels for Rooms, Doors, and Cabbins of Ships, Cabinets, Bookcases, Screens, Chimney Pieces, Tables, Teatrays and Waiters’.
Instead of using small scraps of paper as described by Robert Dossie in the Handmaid to the Arts (1764), Clay pasted and layered large sheets of specially-made ‘making paper’ onto an oiled board, compressed and screwed them down, and slowly dried them in an oven or stove: a procedure that was repeated until the paper panel was of the required thickness. The panel was then removed from the board, immersed in linseed oil and stoved once again; this made it resistant to damp, prevented it from warping, and rendered it hard enough to be sawn, planed and dovetailed exactly as wood. Thus it was not papier mâché in the generally accepted sense of that term but, rather, pasteboard. It was so successful that, by 1788 the trade had spread to London.
The ‘high varnish’ to which Clay referred was japan varnish – a product devised in the 17th century to enable European cabinet makers to imitate and compete with oriental lacquer imports. Regardless of whether the imports came from China, India or Japan, a shorthand developed and western imitations were said to have been decorated in the style of Japan – hence the term japanning. However, Clay, and other Midlands japanners, used the asphaltum or tar-based varnish which had been introduced at Pontypool in the early 18th century, for use on tinware. Although it was still called japan varnish, its asphaltum content meant that it had to be stove-dried in order to fully harden - a requirement that distinguishes the japanned finish of papier mâché and tinware from both oriental lacquer and early European imitations. Depending upon the quality of the article, up to eighteen layers of varnish were applied and each had to be stoved and rubbed down before the next was added. Only then could the decorative motifs be painted or gilded, and they too, had to be stove-dried. The manufacture of the Overseers’ Casket would, therefore, have been spread over many days.8
The conflicting styles of the casket’s late 18th century gilt and painted decoration and the early 19th century silver ornaments on its exterior, are at first confusing. But, imagine the box without the silver-repoussée mounts, and what remains is a handsomely proportioned box of square form with a hinged lid. It is, in fact, a large version of Clay’s earliest papier mâché tea caddies and, like them, it may have been fitted with a silver drop-loop handle on its lid and two silver ring handles at its sides. Picture also, the inside lid with only the small oval silver plate set against a black japanned ground, narrowly bordered by a decorative painted band (traces of which still remain beneath the later silver plate) - and the box is as it would have appeared when Clay presented it in 1784. It is decorated in chinoiserie style with stencilled sprays of flowering foliage in two shades of gold leaf with touches of transparent colour, and flowers in so-called ‘raised work’ - a style of gilded impasto ornament copied from early Eastern lacquer, and a very early example of its use on Midlands japanned ware. The motifs are reminiscent of, but not directly copied from designs in Stalker and Parker’s influential book A Treatise of Japan[n]ing and Varnishing (1688).
Perhaps one of the most curious details to emerge from the history of this box is that Clay himself, failed to attend any meetings of the Overseers and Guardians; he, and other non-attendees, were asked to state their intentions. Much was expected of those appointed to these positions for, in addition to regular meetings, they might be called upon to conduct examinations of paupers, arrange apprenticeships, interview applicants for out-relief, frequently inspect the workhouse, visit patients at lunatic asylums, and much else besides. It is not surprising therefore, that when questioned about their apparent laxity, several Overseers cited pressure of business as the main problem. This was certainly so for Clay who explained that he ‘is so much in London that he thinks he can’t do his duty.’ Given his known activities at the time, this was no hollow excuse. Shortly before his appointment as a Guardian,9 he had opened his ‘Birmingham Warehouse’ at 18, King Street in Covent Garden, London, and this, together with his canvassing for Fox in the Fox/North coalition in the same year, would have necessitated frequent visits to the capital. By implication, his friend, Mrs Papendiek, Keeper and Reader to Queen Charlotte, said as much when she noted in her journal that the election ‘brought Mr Clay to town again’.10 Since, travel between Birmingham and London could have taken Clay the better part of a day and a half, it is easy to see why he may have found it difficult to attend weekly meetings, albeit during only one month of the year. Moreover, beyond the running of his large and very successful business, he had other commitments in Birmingham where he had been a Juror for the Hundred of Hemlingford since 1781, and had joined the committee of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, in 1783. In addition, he may already have begun negotiations for the purchase of Maxstoke Hall and 320 acres of surrounding land, in Warwickshire - a sale that was finally completed in August 1785 and an expenditure that demonstrates his commercial success.
In view of his poor attendance, could it be that Clay presented this casket to the Overseers to show his continuing interest and concern for their work and, maybe, also as a peace-offering? At this distance in time there is no way of knowing; just as there is no way of knowing what purpose he intended the casket to serve. The monthly meetings involved fewer than ten people, so it is doubtful that so large a box would have been required as a tea caddy and, conversely, it would have been too small to serve as a ballot box. However, the addition of further silver embellishments, some years later, suggests that the casket was a highly revered and significant object within the institution so, maybe, its purpose was purely ceremonial.
The first of these additions was the large silver plate which fills the inside lid and surrounds the original dedication plate. It was engraved and signed by William Selkirk junior, an ‘engraver and Letter Cutter’ and ‘Plater and Manufacturer of Plated articles’ who was listed in a Birmingham directory of 1816 and who, by 1823 (having dropped the qualifying junior), was described as an ‘engraver, letter-cutter and inlayer of gold and other ornaments in steel …’. The plate is engraved above and below with the arms of the de Bermingham family11, and the names of eleven Birmingham men. By the 19th century, the number of overseers in each parish had increased to twelve to meet the rising need for poor relief engendered by the Napoleonic Wars. Elections were now held twice-yearly; if, as was likely, names were added as overseers were appointed, this may explain the absence, from this plate, of the twelfth official.
The names of the Overseers are randomly grouped within engraved laurel wreaths at each corner of the plate. For most, we have only the dates of their original appointments as Guardians between the years 1821 and 1825, but it will be seen that a few individuals were quickly redesignated ‘Overseers’; if a similar pattern was followed for the others, then the plate may have been added a little later than 1825 when all those named might have been similarly redesignated. At top left are the names of William Barlow, Samuel Rawlins and Benjamin Barnes who were elected Guardians between 1821 and 1822, and described in the Minutes as a cooper, a currier and ironfounder, respectively. Named at top right are James Mucklow, a toymaker,12 elected in both 1821 and 1822, and Robson Beilby,13 a ‘merchant’ who was elected in 1825. At lower left are the names of Richard Clarkson, a ‘gilt, plated, and pearl button maker’, Edward Bach, a haberdasher, and Richard Bagnall, a button maker, all three of whom were appointed Guardians in 1822 and Overseers just four months later. Named at lower right are William Beach, a merchant, who was made a Guardian in 1821, William Spooner, also elected in 1821 but made an Overseer the following year, and James Wakeman, a comb-maker, who took up office as a Guardian in 1825.
An inscription beginning along the right edge of the plate and concluding along the opposite edge, reads The exterior embellishment the gift of Mr. William Spooner, and refers to the silver mounts on the outside of the casket, some of which incorporate national emblems. They were the work of William Spooner and Co., platers and manufacturers of plated articles, and their style suggests that they may have been added in 1831, to mark the introduction of the Birmingham Poor Law Act which gave Guardians far greater autonomy.
The Overseers’ Casket names some of Birmingham’s prominent manufacturers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries most, if not all, of whom would have looked to the workhouse for some, at least, of their apprentices. They represent a few of the many small metal-working trades upon which Birmingham’s industry was built, and in the mutual camaraderie that exists among meetings of like-minded businessmen, they may have been connected commercially. Certainly, the casket raises the interesting possibility that Henry Clay - notwithstanding his absenteeism - looked to his fellow Guardians for some of the materials with which he finished his goods, namely pearl, ivory, and silver. In addition to being a unique Birmingham document, the casket is the only known dated piece by Henry Clay who, at the time of his gift was enjoying international renown – a reputation which, surely, makes his presentation all the more significant. Regardless of whatever purpose Henry Clay had in mind for this casket, it was, indeed, a handsome gift.
© Yvonne Jones, September, 2017
Footnotes:
1. The Gilbert Act of 1782, allowed parishes to combine to form a union and build a workhouse. Birmingham had done this, 60 years earlier, and had had a workhouse for almost as long; nevertheless, the Act led to reforms in Birmingham workhouse.
2. My thanks to Fiona Tait for kindly making available to me an essay, ‘Guardians and Overseers’, by the Late Chris Upton
3. Minutes of the Guardians, Library of Birmingham, Archives and Heritage (GP B/2/1/1)
4. A merchant traded with foreign countries; a factor was an agent for himself or another tradesman.
5. A chape is the metal prong of a buckle.
6. For further details about Henry Clay, see: Yvonne Jones, Japanned Papier mâché and Tinware c.1740-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012.
7. Stephen Bedford of Birmingham, was already making and japanning papier mâché by 1759.
8. See Yvonne Jones, op cit., for further details of manufacture and decoration.
9. It is not clear from the Minutes whether Clay ultimately became an Overseer.
10. Charlotte L. H. Papendiek, Court and Private Life in the time of Queen Charlotte, London, 1887, vol. 1, pp. 212
11. The de Bermingham arms were later incorporated into the arms of the Borough and later, into the arms of the City of Birmingham. They also appear on the reverse of the ‘Copper Penny Tokens’ issued by the Birmingham Workhouse, in 1812.
12. Toymaker; one who manufactures small personal articles like snuff boxes, buckles,
watch chains etc..
13. He married into the well-known Beilby family of glass-makers and added the name to his own.
This intriguing japanned papier mâché casket was presented to Birmingham’s Overseers of the Poor in 1784, probably to mark the end of their inaugural year. In 1783, a Local Act ‘for the better management of Birmingham Workhouse’ had allowed ratepayers the right to elect six Overseers to control its finances, put out apprentices and deal with matters of bastardy, and 108 Guardians to make daily visits and to check upon its management; in practice their duties often overlapped. Since these offices were unpaid and only Birmingham ratepayers assessed above £10 a year were eligible, Overseers and Guardians were generally drawn from the town’s most prosperous men. Over the course of almost fifty years, and possibly coinciding with a significant development in provision for the poor, the casket underwent various alterations and additions, which are detailed in the inscriptions to the inside of the hinged cover.
For an extensive article unlocking the early history of this casket by Ms. Jones, please see www.christies.com
The Overseers’ Casket
Yvonne Jones
This intriguing japanned papier mâché casket was presented to Birmingham’s Overseers of the Poor in 1784, probably to mark the end of their inaugural year.1 In 1783, a Local Act ‘for the better management of Birmingham Workhouse’ had allowed ratepayers the right to elect 6 Overseers to control its finances, put out apprentices and deal with matters of bastardy, and 108 Guardians to make daily visits and to check upon its management; in practice their duties often overlapped. Since these offices were unpaid and only Birmingham ratepayers assessed above £10 a year were eligible, Overseers and Guardians were generally drawn from the town’s most prosperous men.2
Over the course of almost fifty years, and possibly coinciding with a significant development in provision for the poor, the casket underwent various alterations and additions. Crucially, these adaptations provide the necessary clues to unlocking the early history of the casket.
The story begins with the finely engraved oval silver plate in the centre of the inside lid. It shows the seated figure of Concordia – the personification of harmony and accord – encircled by a scrolling ribbon inscribed The Gift of Henry Clay Esqr. to J. Rabone, J. Marston, B. Redfern, S. Oatridge, S. Bellamy, T. Grundy, Overseers in the Year MDCCLXXXIV. Among these names are some of Birmingham’s eminent manufacturers at the time.
The names do not appear to be listed in any particular order, but the Minutes of the Guardians3 meetings shed some light on matters. Twelve Committees were appointed in the first year and each was allotted a specific month during which its members were to attend weekly meetings. Of the dedicatees, ‘B. Redfern’, appointed to the second Committee which met in September 1783, was first to be mentioned in the Minutes, and ‘T.Grundy’, a member of the June 1784 meeting, was the last. Curiously, the Minutes do not record receipt of Clay’s gift but the date of Grundy’s appointment makes it likely it was presented at the end of July, 1784.
Although Samuel Bellamy and Henry Clay are of the greatest relevance here, it may be helpful first to consider the trades of the other men named on the plaque. Redfern, was almost certainly Bartholomew Redfern of B. M. & W. Redfern, gunmakers and factors; Samuel Oatridge, was a merchant and factor4, and Joseph Rabone, a button- and toymaker. Marston was most likely John Marston a plated buckle-maker and brass founder, though Joseph Marston, a plumber, glazier, glass-cutter and painter cannot be ruled out; Thomas Grundy was a merchant and partner in the firm of Grundy, Russell and Grundy.
The plate is signed ‘Bellamy Sculp.’ at left along its lower edge, for Samuel Bellamy, himself an Overseer and a Birmingham engraver, chape- and buckle-maker.5 In 1777, he took out a patent for stamping metals with John Marston – a link which possibly increases the likelihood that it was John, the metal worker, who was an Overseer, rather than Joseph, the plumber. By 1785, Bellamy was listed as a button-maker.
In terms of the casket, Henry Clay6 (1737-1812) is the most important of those named. As Britain’s leading japanner of papier mâché, he enjoyed royal patronage, styling himself from 1777 as Japanner to the Queen, and from 1781, as Japanner to his Majesty, and often marked his products accordingly. The casket appears not to bear the stamp of his workshop but this is possibly because any such mark was obscured when the casket was altered. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that it was made by Clay - as an astute businessman, he was unlikely to have turned to a rival manufacturer to make such an important piece.
Clay was not the first to make and japan papier mâché in Britain,7 but the novelty of his patent of 1772 (#1027), secured the commercial future of the product. The patent was for ‘Making in Paper High Varnished Pannels or Roofs for Coaches, and all Sorts of Wheel Carriages and Sedan Chairs, Pannels for Rooms, Doors, and Cabbins of Ships, Cabinets, Bookcases, Screens, Chimney Pieces, Tables, Teatrays and Waiters’.
Instead of using small scraps of paper as described by Robert Dossie in the Handmaid to the Arts (1764), Clay pasted and layered large sheets of specially-made ‘making paper’ onto an oiled board, compressed and screwed them down, and slowly dried them in an oven or stove: a procedure that was repeated until the paper panel was of the required thickness. The panel was then removed from the board, immersed in linseed oil and stoved once again; this made it resistant to damp, prevented it from warping, and rendered it hard enough to be sawn, planed and dovetailed exactly as wood. Thus it was not papier mâché in the generally accepted sense of that term but, rather, pasteboard. It was so successful that, by 1788 the trade had spread to London.
The ‘high varnish’ to which Clay referred was japan varnish – a product devised in the 17th century to enable European cabinet makers to imitate and compete with oriental lacquer imports. Regardless of whether the imports came from China, India or Japan, a shorthand developed and western imitations were said to have been decorated in the style of Japan – hence the term japanning. However, Clay, and other Midlands japanners, used the asphaltum or tar-based varnish which had been introduced at Pontypool in the early 18th century, for use on tinware. Although it was still called japan varnish, its asphaltum content meant that it had to be stove-dried in order to fully harden - a requirement that distinguishes the japanned finish of papier mâché and tinware from both oriental lacquer and early European imitations. Depending upon the quality of the article, up to eighteen layers of varnish were applied and each had to be stoved and rubbed down before the next was added. Only then could the decorative motifs be painted or gilded, and they too, had to be stove-dried. The manufacture of the Overseers’ Casket would, therefore, have been spread over many days.8
The conflicting styles of the casket’s late 18th century gilt and painted decoration and the early 19th century silver ornaments on its exterior, are at first confusing. But, imagine the box without the silver-repoussée mounts, and what remains is a handsomely proportioned box of square form with a hinged lid. It is, in fact, a large version of Clay’s earliest papier mâché tea caddies and, like them, it may have been fitted with a silver drop-loop handle on its lid and two silver ring handles at its sides. Picture also, the inside lid with only the small oval silver plate set against a black japanned ground, narrowly bordered by a decorative painted band (traces of which still remain beneath the later silver plate) - and the box is as it would have appeared when Clay presented it in 1784. It is decorated in chinoiserie style with stencilled sprays of flowering foliage in two shades of gold leaf with touches of transparent colour, and flowers in so-called ‘raised work’ - a style of gilded impasto ornament copied from early Eastern lacquer, and a very early example of its use on Midlands japanned ware. The motifs are reminiscent of, but not directly copied from designs in Stalker and Parker’s influential book A Treatise of Japan[n]ing and Varnishing (1688).
Perhaps one of the most curious details to emerge from the history of this box is that Clay himself, failed to attend any meetings of the Overseers and Guardians; he, and other non-attendees, were asked to state their intentions. Much was expected of those appointed to these positions for, in addition to regular meetings, they might be called upon to conduct examinations of paupers, arrange apprenticeships, interview applicants for out-relief, frequently inspect the workhouse, visit patients at lunatic asylums, and much else besides. It is not surprising therefore, that when questioned about their apparent laxity, several Overseers cited pressure of business as the main problem. This was certainly so for Clay who explained that he ‘is so much in London that he thinks he can’t do his duty.’ Given his known activities at the time, this was no hollow excuse. Shortly before his appointment as a Guardian,9 he had opened his ‘Birmingham Warehouse’ at 18, King Street in Covent Garden, London, and this, together with his canvassing for Fox in the Fox/North coalition in the same year, would have necessitated frequent visits to the capital. By implication, his friend, Mrs Papendiek, Keeper and Reader to Queen Charlotte, said as much when she noted in her journal that the election ‘brought Mr Clay to town again’.10 Since, travel between Birmingham and London could have taken Clay the better part of a day and a half, it is easy to see why he may have found it difficult to attend weekly meetings, albeit during only one month of the year. Moreover, beyond the running of his large and very successful business, he had other commitments in Birmingham where he had been a Juror for the Hundred of Hemlingford since 1781, and had joined the committee of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, in 1783. In addition, he may already have begun negotiations for the purchase of Maxstoke Hall and 320 acres of surrounding land, in Warwickshire - a sale that was finally completed in August 1785 and an expenditure that demonstrates his commercial success.
In view of his poor attendance, could it be that Clay presented this casket to the Overseers to show his continuing interest and concern for their work and, maybe, also as a peace-offering? At this distance in time there is no way of knowing; just as there is no way of knowing what purpose he intended the casket to serve. The monthly meetings involved fewer than ten people, so it is doubtful that so large a box would have been required as a tea caddy and, conversely, it would have been too small to serve as a ballot box. However, the addition of further silver embellishments, some years later, suggests that the casket was a highly revered and significant object within the institution so, maybe, its purpose was purely ceremonial.
The first of these additions was the large silver plate which fills the inside lid and surrounds the original dedication plate. It was engraved and signed by William Selkirk junior, an ‘engraver and Letter Cutter’ and ‘Plater and Manufacturer of Plated articles’ who was listed in a Birmingham directory of 1816 and who, by 1823 (having dropped the qualifying junior), was described as an ‘engraver, letter-cutter and inlayer of gold and other ornaments in steel …’. The plate is engraved above and below with the arms of the de Bermingham family11, and the names of eleven Birmingham men. By the 19th century, the number of overseers in each parish had increased to twelve to meet the rising need for poor relief engendered by the Napoleonic Wars. Elections were now held twice-yearly; if, as was likely, names were added as overseers were appointed, this may explain the absence, from this plate, of the twelfth official.
The names of the Overseers are randomly grouped within engraved laurel wreaths at each corner of the plate. For most, we have only the dates of their original appointments as Guardians between the years 1821 and 1825, but it will be seen that a few individuals were quickly redesignated ‘Overseers’; if a similar pattern was followed for the others, then the plate may have been added a little later than 1825 when all those named might have been similarly redesignated. At top left are the names of William Barlow, Samuel Rawlins and Benjamin Barnes who were elected Guardians between 1821 and 1822, and described in the Minutes as a cooper, a currier and ironfounder, respectively. Named at top right are James Mucklow, a toymaker,12 elected in both 1821 and 1822, and Robson Beilby,13 a ‘merchant’ who was elected in 1825. At lower left are the names of Richard Clarkson, a ‘gilt, plated, and pearl button maker’, Edward Bach, a haberdasher, and Richard Bagnall, a button maker, all three of whom were appointed Guardians in 1822 and Overseers just four months later. Named at lower right are William Beach, a merchant, who was made a Guardian in 1821, William Spooner, also elected in 1821 but made an Overseer the following year, and James Wakeman, a comb-maker, who took up office as a Guardian in 1825.
An inscription beginning along the right edge of the plate and concluding along the opposite edge, reads The exterior embellishment the gift of Mr. William Spooner, and refers to the silver mounts on the outside of the casket, some of which incorporate national emblems. They were the work of William Spooner and Co., platers and manufacturers of plated articles, and their style suggests that they may have been added in 1831, to mark the introduction of the Birmingham Poor Law Act which gave Guardians far greater autonomy.
The Overseers’ Casket names some of Birmingham’s prominent manufacturers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries most, if not all, of whom would have looked to the workhouse for some, at least, of their apprentices. They represent a few of the many small metal-working trades upon which Birmingham’s industry was built, and in the mutual camaraderie that exists among meetings of like-minded businessmen, they may have been connected commercially. Certainly, the casket raises the interesting possibility that Henry Clay - notwithstanding his absenteeism - looked to his fellow Guardians for some of the materials with which he finished his goods, namely pearl, ivory, and silver. In addition to being a unique Birmingham document, the casket is the only known dated piece by Henry Clay who, at the time of his gift was enjoying international renown – a reputation which, surely, makes his presentation all the more significant. Regardless of whatever purpose Henry Clay had in mind for this casket, it was, indeed, a handsome gift.
© Yvonne Jones, September, 2017
Footnotes:
1. The Gilbert Act of 1782, allowed parishes to combine to form a union and build a workhouse. Birmingham had done this, 60 years earlier, and had had a workhouse for almost as long; nevertheless, the Act led to reforms in Birmingham workhouse.
2. My thanks to Fiona Tait for kindly making available to me an essay, ‘Guardians and Overseers’, by the Late Chris Upton
3. Minutes of the Guardians, Library of Birmingham, Archives and Heritage (GP B/2/1/1)
4. A merchant traded with foreign countries; a factor was an agent for himself or another tradesman.
5. A chape is the metal prong of a buckle.
6. For further details about Henry Clay, see: Yvonne Jones, Japanned Papier mâché and Tinware c.1740-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2012.
7. Stephen Bedford of Birmingham, was already making and japanning papier mâché by 1759.
8. See Yvonne Jones, op cit., for further details of manufacture and decoration.
9. It is not clear from the Minutes whether Clay ultimately became an Overseer.
10. Charlotte L. H. Papendiek, Court and Private Life in the time of Queen Charlotte, London, 1887, vol. 1, pp. 212
11. The de Bermingham arms were later incorporated into the arms of the Borough and later, into the arms of the City of Birmingham. They also appear on the reverse of the ‘Copper Penny Tokens’ issued by the Birmingham Workhouse, in 1812.
12. Toymaker; one who manufactures small personal articles like snuff boxes, buckles,
watch chains etc..
13. He married into the well-known Beilby family of glass-makers and added the name to his own.