The Brass Industry and Brass Workers in Birmingham 1700 - 1830
(c.) Caption: Brass Door Furniture from William Tonks and Sons,
Catalogue of the Various Kinds of Work (Birmingham, 1880), p
318. An example of the wide range of items produced by one
Birmingham brass manufacturer. [Image from: Birmingham Central
Library, Local Studies and History] Text: Doreen Hopwood Image
Captions: Malcolm Dick The brass trade has left its mark on the
English language - we refer to people as having a “brass neck”
and we get down to “brass tacks” when we mean business. Our
bosses can be referred to as “top brass” or “brass hats” and our
brassworking ancestors may well have been “brassed off” by the
tedious and repetitive nature of their work! Large profits were
to be made from brass and the numbers of foundries, factories
and manufactories grew at an alarming rate from the late
eighteenth century. By the mid nineteenth century the
manufacture of every conceivable item that could be made of
brass - from tacks to bedsteads and gas