The James Gibbons foundry is a very famous foundry in the UK, and it is really fascinating to read about the people and processes on the frontline of creating some of the architectural classics in our collection (albeit the newer pieces). We often look at how things are used, what you can do with them in your own home, and the weird and wonderful ways people reinvent old concepts – but it has been rare that we’ve looked at how things were actually made, and how these pieces began their life. The James Gibbons products will be our bread and butter in a hundred years time, but are quite classic now. Not to mention the fact that it is just fascinating to see people in suits and rimless spectacles (or monocles!), in black and white photos, working in another era…

A former employee of James Gibbons in the middle of last century, Frank Spittle, described them as putting ‘the ‘City’ on the face of Wolverhampton in the Millenium”. He also notes that the decline of the business was due to cheap imports, and unnecessary strikes by a union-led workforce, later.

James Gibbons was a unique place to work – Frank Spittle says that fifty years of service for an employee was far from unusually, and many people stayed there for their whole working life. People felt such loyalty to James Gibbons because it was a family-owned business, and the staff respected the management. However, as with all good things, once you’ve built it up someone will want o come along and buy it… most often ruining it. Spittle says that management takeovers later in the piece destroyed the workers’ respect for the management. However, the strong working community early on is what made it possible for such beautiful pieces and such great inventions to come about through the company. James gibbons not only had their dedicated art-metal department, they also had a strong focus on product innovation. They invented the coin-operated lock for lockers, which is now popular at swimming pools. Their advert for it was probably fairly risqué at the time, also! Surely women are only allowed to uncover their stomachs in the privacy of their own bathroom, or possibly their bed… ! (more…)

At Architectural Classics, we are all about the details. After all, you could fudge through with plain door handles from any old shop in your home …but, fair enough, you don’t want to! We don’t either. These knob notes are all about the details and subtleties as well. They are modeled on the Victorian era, so the colours, the style and the clothing that the characters are all wearing is from the mid-1800s or so. They are a great way to fit your accessories in with any ‘style’ home from the 1700s to late 1800s though.

One of the subtleties you’ll find in these knob notes though, is that they actually have sense of humour which is quite un-Victorian! They start off innocently enough: “Be Home Late”, “Be Right Back”, “Shhh … Baby’s Sleeping”, and so on. There is one for just about every occasion, even when you only the unfunny ones! I started lifting my eyebrow, and dusting off my modern morals about what type of underwear you have on having no bearing on your role in life, etc, when I saw the ones like “Caution! Wet Floor”, “Clothes in Dryer”, and “Dinner in Oven”, showing pleasingly domesticated and dutiful child-like mothers going about their housework etc. Meanwhile, the notes depicting men all said “Went Golfing”, “Gone Fishing” etc. (more…)

Although the internet has expanded our worlds by a billion times what they once were, it does come with its own set of positives and negatives. Buying things off the internet always has that element of risk, danger and surprise … definitely not the same as the nice, comfortingly safe route of looking at something, examining it, testing it and then handing money over a counter for it. Well, we’d like to take as much of the uncertainty out of buying things from Architectural Classics as possible – sorry thrill-seekers and adrenalin junkies!

We have recently added a feature to a selection of our door bells, whereby you can test the sound of the ring before you purchase them! When I tested these, my dogs were in the room, and immediately ran to the window with their tails up, thinking there was someone coming to give them … gods knows what they expected, really! But I’m sure they’ll attest to the fact that it is a great idea :-) Try this feature and let us know what you think:

Please remember that to help you feel even better and safer about purchasing from us, we do offer a no-questions-asked refund policy. You can cancel your order at any time before delivery, and return it within 14 days of receiving it, for any reason whatsoever … you are also welcome to contact us via phone to make an order – we love chatting to other antique nuts!

Okay… sorry about the title! But for every groan I think there’s a tiny smile inside somewhere! Seriously, if you are renovating your house, or trying to improve the value a bit before you sell it, door knobs are one of the easiest, most personal and cheapest ways to add value to you home. Greg Bettenhausen, a hardware man in the States, calls door hardware “the jewelry of the home” … and who wouldn’t want to dress their home up a bit?!

If you are happy to hunt around, checking out all the different priced, gorgeous knobs available, you can pick up some absolute bargains when it comes to door knobs. Check our handy guides to installing and troubleshooting them yourself, and you don’t even need to pay tradesperson’s fees. Then again, for those of you that live like Scrooge McDuck, you could spend around £500 per door – this is what a recent project involving custom-made French-deco lever handles, in hand-plated antique silver cost the homeowner.

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Ah, the determination and the capacity for rage of some people who believe that the worst sin someone can commit is making them get off the couch because they think they are worthwhile talking to…
Do you think some people just constantly need something to be angry about? Perhaps their calling in life is sarcasm, and there just isn’t yet a career to suit them? It can’t be that he doesn’t want his door knocker worn out, because it is only a picture!

First, Please Consider These IMPORTANT Preliminary Questions:

Are you a woman? (Yes / No)
Are you a psycho? (Yes / No)

• If you answered “Yes” to only one of these questions, please continue on & answer the questions below.
  
• If you answered “Yes” to both questions, there’s no point in your bothering to answer the rest of the questions: You can be a woman & enter Chez Deuce. You can be a psycho & enter Chez Deuce. But you can’t be both, dammit!
  

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