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Explore the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter | ||
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THE PEN TRADE |
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A typical pen nib. The pierced hole can be seen, about one third of the way along, with the slit running from the hole to the tip of the nib (left). The shading along the top and bottom suggests the rounded profile which was created in the raising process.
An aerial view of Sir Josiah Mason's works, the largest pen factory in the world
Sir Josiah Mason
John Mitchell
Joseph Gillott
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The manufacturing process Despite the fact that pen nibs were remarkably cheap, the manufacturing process was surprisingly complicated, involving 14 or more operations. Some of these operations were themselves complex and required considerable technical knowledge or skill. Given that the Birmingham manufacturers had been developing their skills for centuries this probably explains, at least in part, why the they achieved such dominance of the world market - indeed, there are reports of would-be manufacturers in Brum who, despite their expertise, still failed in their attempts to produce high quality pen nibs competitively. The pen makers started with sheets of brass or, more commonly, steel. These were first rolled to reduce them to the required thickness, and then blanked, by putting them in a press which stamped out flat pen shapes, known as blanks. The blanks were stamped with the maker's name and some nibs had side slits cut in them before they were pierced. This was the process of making a small hole in the nib, which served both to prevent the slit which would later be formed from spreading, and to permit the flow of ink through the nib. Then the nibs were annealed (heat treated) in order to soften them. This was one of the processes that was difficult to get right; apart from the fact that it was done in a very specific way, skilled operatives, using years of experience, were required to judge by the colour of the pens when the process was complete. Next the nibs were raised to give them their rounded profile. This was followed by hardening and tempering, which entailed a complex series of operations. Again, it was difficult, but critical, to get these processes right, as they determined both the corrosion resistance and the flexibility of the nib. Next the nibs were cleaned by pickling them in dilute sulphuric acid. Then came scouring, carried out in pebble mills, ie the nibs were placed in drums containing water and pebbles, which were rotated for several hours. Two more scouring processes followed, one using a dry compound and the final one, sawdust. After scouring the nibs were shiny, had the desired rounded point, and any burrs or rough edges had been removed. The nibs might then be ground to reduce the thickness in certain places, making them more flexible. Next they were slitted, ie a slit was put in, running from the hole that had been pierced earlier, to the tip of the nib. Then came barrelling. This was another scouring process, which was followed by colouring, achieved by the application of heat to the nibs and again requiring careful control to produce exactly the required colour, the nibs turning successively bronze, blue, purple and so on, the longer the heat was applied. Next came varnishing (or gold or silver plating in the case of the more expensive nibs) to prevent rusting. Finally there was inspection, packaging and despatch.
The main pen makers
Baker
and Finnemore. The company
was established in James Street, just near St Paul's Square,
in 1850. In the 1840s a Daniel Baker was making pens in Icknield
Street West, whilst Evans and Finnemore were pen makers in Legge Lane.
Whether these were the same Baker and Finnemore I don't know, but it
seems likely. What is known is that Joseph Finnemore had earlier worked
for George Wells. Although they now give their address as
Newhall Street, I would imagine they are still on the original site,
since the premises back on to James Street and there is an entrance
there. Their pens, which were branded
'Bak-Fin', were sold worldwide. The company is still very much in business
in its Newhall Street premises,
but no longer makes pens (see 'The pen makers' sidelines', right-hand
column). C
Brandauer & Co Ltd.
The company was founded in 1850 as Ash & Petit and traded
under that name from 70 Navigation Street until 1862. Joseph Petit
looked after the manufacturing side, whilst Charles Ash was responsible
for the finances. Whether Ash was a rogue I do not know, but in 1861 he
'disappeared', leaving the company in financial difficulties. The firm's
agent in Vienna, Carl Kuhn, was so concerned about the lack of supply
resulting from these problems that he sent his nephew, Charles
Brandauer, over to Brum to sort things out. Brandauer offered to invest
in the company, financing a new factory in New John Street West, which
is near
the Hockley flyover, on condition that Joseph Petit continued to run the
business. The Brandauers remained involved with the business until the
First World War, when the factory was confiscated by the authorities on
the grounds that the Brandauers were Austrian, and was eventually
released to the Petit family. Tragically, one of the Brandauers, who
despite his nationality was 'more English than the English', committed
suicide when he was detained as an enemy national during the war. The company is still in business,
until recently in New John Street West but now in Newtown, and
remarkably, is still owned and run by the Petit family, though like
Baker & Finnemore they no longer make pens. In 2004, the company won
a major contract to supply precision components for the Large Hadron
Collider at the CERN research lab in Geneva. (I am most grateful
to Marie-Louise Petit for supplying information about the events during
WW1, which led to the factory being transferred to the Petit
family.) Joseph
Gillott & Sons Ltd. Joseph Gillott began making pen nibs in
around 1827, in Bread Street (which was where lower Cornwall
Street is now). As his business grew, he moved successively to Church
Street, Newhall Street and finally to the Victoria
Works in Graham Street. Ultimately, his firm came to be about
two-thirds the size of the largest manufacturer, Josiah Mason. The
company was particularly strong in the American market, prompting Elihu
Burrit, the
American consul, to write, 'In ten thousand school houses across the
American continent between the two oceans, a million children are as
familiarly acquainted with Joseph Gillott as with Noah Webster' (the
compiler of the famous American dictionary). The
Victoria Works consequently received visits from many notable Americans,
including US president Ulysses S Grant. Other notable visitors included
the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and Prince Albert. The
explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who discovered Dr Livingstone, also
found his way to Graham Street. The firm was noted
for the specialist nibs it made for artists and calligraphers. The
company's pen making business was folded into British Pens Ltd in 1969,
and that company continues to market artists' and calligraphers' pens
under the Gillott brand. Hinks Wells
& Co. George Wells set up
a pen making business in 1836, taking on John Hinks as partner around 15
years later. They had a factory in Buckingham Street, near Old Snow
Hill. Thomas Hooper ran the company following the deaths of the founding
partners, introducing improvements in the manufacturing process and
diversifying into fountain pens and typewriters. In 1920 the company
merged with William Mitchell to form British Pens Ltd. Geo
W Hughes. George Hughes set
up the business around 1840 in St Paul's
Square, moving in 1893 to a new works in Legge Lane.
His knowledge of metallurgy enabled
the company to produce pens of very high quality. The business, which was
never incorporated, made all the pens marketed by Rudhall & Co of Jamaica
Row. They also made fountain pens. The company closed around 1960,
although the factory survives. D
Leonardt & Co. Diedrich
Leonardt founded the business in 1856. By 1867 he had entered into
partnership with Catwinkle, the firm Leonardt & Catwinkle having
a works in George Street. But by 1869 this firm had been dissolved and Leonardt
had gone into partnership with Hewitt in Charlotte Street. Then, in 1880,
Hewitt formed a partnership with both Diedrich and Charles Leonardt.
This liaison survived until 1889, when Hezekiah Hewitt left
to start his own business in Sparkbrook and (after all that!) the
business reverted to its original name of D Leonardt & Co. The
company was most noted for its patented nibs with hemispherical tips. In
1946 AAS Charles who, before the war had managed his father's pen making
business, T Hessin & Co of Wheeleys Lane (off Broad Street),
established the Highley Pen Co at Highley in Shropshire. In 1949 this
business merged with D Leonardt & Co, and thereafter traded under
that name. The company is still in business at Highley and still
manufactures pen nibs and fountain pens. Macniven
& Cameron. This was a
firm of printers and stationers in based in Edinburgh, which had been
founded in 1770. Their Waverley nib was first manufactured on the
company's behalf in 1864 by Joseph Gillott, but in the mid 1870s
manufacture was transferred to Hinks Wells. Then, in 1900, they began to manufacture their
pens themselves in Birmingham, at a works in Watery Lane, Bordesley. They also made stainless steel
self-filling fountain
pens for a time in the 1920s, but this was not very successful
and they moved into stationery items, including paperclips. The Watery
Lane factory closed in 1964, though parts of the company survive. There
is more information here.
I am most grateful to Sue Bowen
for supplying information which led me to this link. Sir
Josiah Mason. Josiah Mason's career has been described
elsewhere,
so only brief details will be given here. He began making pen nibs in 1827
at his factory in Lancaster Street, and grew to be the biggest pen maker
in the world. Very few of his pens were sold under the Mason name, most
being made for Perry & Co, but he also made pens for Gillott and
Sommerville. He took over Sommerville & Co in 1870, and in 1876 when
Josiah Mason retired from buiness the
Mason, Wiley and Perry businesses were merged under the name of Perry
& Co, Josiah Mason receiving £130,000 for his business, £15,000 of
which was in 5% preference shares. This business became part of British Pens in 1961. John
Mitchell. John Mitchell is
credited with having pioneered the mass manufacture of steel pens when, in 1822,
he applied methods used in button making to the manufacture of pen nibs,
enabling them to be mass produced to a better quality and at a fraction
of their previous cost. Initially based at 36 Newhall Street, by 1835 he
had moved to larger premises at 48 Newhall Street, and in 1908 the
company moved to large factory premises in Moland Street, near to where
Aston University is today. John Mitchell gained a royal warrant to
supply Queen Victoria with pens, and won medals at the Great Exhibition
of 1851 and the Paris Exhibition of 1855. His pens were particularly
popular in France and Belgium, where his 'plumes ballons', which sported
an embossed balloon, became a household name. In 1928, John Mitchell began making Esterbrook fountain
pens by arrangement with Hazell, Watson & Viney Ltd (UK agents for
Esterbrook - an American firm - who were later
reorganised as Esterbrook Hazell Pens Ltd). In 1947 the Mitchell business and
the factory were sold to Esterbrook Hazell
Pens Ltd, who in turn were bought out by the American Esterbrook company
(see 'A cruel irony', right-hand column). The American management introduced
new products including marker pens and felt tips. Then in 1967 the Esterbrook Pen Co was taken over by the
Venus Pencil Co, which had a modern factory in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to
which production was gradually transferred, ceasing on the Moland
Street site in 1972. Though still standing (just!) the factory is now derelict. William
Mitchell. After
a couple of years working for his brother John, in 1824 William Mitchell
set up in business on his own in Church Street, before moving to 7 St
Paul's Square in 1830. In 1852 he moved to Cumberland Street, off Broad
Street. I assume it was while at this address that he began making
Cumberland pencils. In 1910 the company moved to a purpose built factory in
Bearwood Road, where around 500 were employed . In 1920 William
Mitchell merged with Hinks Wells to form British Pens, still in Bearwood
Road but now employing around 1,000. British Pens, which took over the
Perry and Gillott businesses in the 1960s, is still making pens and
pencils at
Oldbury in the Black Country. M Myers &
Son. The business was founded by Meyer Myers in around 1837,
and was initially based at 8 Newhall Street. After trading on his own
account for a while he entered a partnership with Philip Phillips, who
in the early to mid 1840s had his own business at 2 Newhall Street, but
Phillips dropped out after a few years. In 1854 the firm moved to a
purpose built works in Charlotte Street and in 1939 they moved again,
this time to Langley Green, Oldbury. The company, which remained
throughout in the control of the Myers family, made corkscrews, drawing
instruments and office supplies, including the famous bulldog clips, as well as pens.
In common with Brandauer and Baker & Finnemore they successfully
diversified into precision pressings. In 1985 the company was sold to an American label company, Avery International, who wanted to expand their European
office stationery business. The old Myers directors quickly retired and
the business transformed virtually overnight from a typically English family firm to part of an
international conglomerate, which sold the factory and its land in Langley Green, and like many other long established British companies, it is now a housing estate.
The firm now operates under the Avery name from what was the distribution centre next to the railway crossing in Langley Green. I
am indebted to Wayne Cooper for updating me on what happened to the
company after the Myers family sold out. Perry
& Co Ltd. James Perry, a schoolmaster, being dissatisfied with
the quality of existing pens, began making steel pens by hand in 1819,
at first in Manchester and then, from 1824, in London. He did much to
popularise steel pens with his patented Perryian pens. From 1829 all of
Perry's pens were made by Josiah
Mason. In 1876 the Perry
company was merged with Josiah
Mason and Wiley under the Perry name. The business was sold to British
Pens in 1961. Sommerville
& Co Ltd. Alfred
Sommerville was originally a wholesaler in steel pens and stationery,
based at 64 Frederick Street. In about 1850 he went into pen
manufacture, taking on Maurice Pollack as manager and, from 1865, as
partner. Their factory was in Legge Lane. Alfred Sommerville owned at
least one pen factory in France (I do not know what name it traded
under) and indeed it was while Sommerville was away in France that
Pollack sold the business to Josiah Mason, who retained Pollack as
manager. Although it may sound as though Pollack had pulled a fast one,
I don't think that was the case; certainly, Josiah Mason deposited
securities with the Birmingham Banking Company, to ensure that
Sommerville received his due. Upon the merger of the Mason, Wiley and
Perry companies, Maurice Pollack became secretary of the combined
undertaking. The former Sommerville factory in Legge Lane is now
derelict. W
E Wiley & Co. I
have been unable to discover when this company was founded, although we
do know that by 1863 it was sufficiently
large and prosperous to build the Albert Works (now the Argent
Centre). Although
their main business was in the manufacture of gold-plated pens they also
made pen holders, pencils, pencil cases, percussion caps, cartridges and
ammunition, and operated a brassworks and a luxury Turkish bath, all
from the same premises. In 1870 they merged with Josiah Mason and Perry
under the Perry name, receiving £36,000 in fully paid up shares. The
Argent Centre is now a flatted factory, and houses
The Pen Room museum.
Success and failure It
is generally acknowledged that for around 130 years Birmingham dominated
the world market for steel pen nibs, which is no small achievement!. But
what, in practice, do we mean by dominated? What was Brum's share
of the market? To answer the question reliably we should need
statistics of world pen production, which we could compare with the figures
for Birmingham. Unfortunately I am not aware of any such figures, but a
bit of guesstimation (see right-hand column) leads me to think that a
figure of 70% to 75% might not be too wide of the mark. For further information about the big Birmingham
manufacturers and the manufacturing method, see 'A brief history of the
Birmingham Pen Trade', published by the BPTHA and obtainable from The
Pen Room.
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