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… !

After the Second World War James Gibbons experienced a boom in business – returning servicemen and women had an impact on society in so many different ways, one of which was the fact that they all needed somewhere to live. And houses must have doors, and doors must have door knobs…! So the factory’s bread and butter was in creating mundane builder’s hardware, but this security gave them the opportunity to forge ahead into something that followed their passions more. As such, a row of cottages at the top of Church Lane was acquired and turned into the Art Metal Department. Also, they had grown to the point where they needed all sorts of equipment to create the specialist equipment which there was now a market for. One of their more technologically advanced (for the time) machines simulated the effects of weather on windows.

When it came to their produce, James Gibbons didn’t compromise their own high standards – Frank Spittle says “Even what might seem like standard products were made to a very high standard … To look at such a mundane candlestick made by James Gibbons, will suggest quality and longevity, not cast as one piece jst to light a room, but made like an article of character to be looked at as well as the falme that surmounted it”. Items like candlesticks were actually made of eight parts, from individual castings, with each of them bronzed and finished on its own before being made part of the whole. And they were just the bread and butter items! The Art Metal Department, which numbered around 30 men, had a huge workshop, special equipment of their own, and the skill and know-how to make so many of the great brass pieces you can see walking around London today.

And isn’t it lovely to look at the men working, back in the day, and imagine a time when things were a bit more black and white…!

Photo credits: A Gazetteer of Lock and Key Makers

          

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