General Metal and Holloware

Orme Evans & Co. Ltd. Elgin Works, Great Brickkiln Street

---

The 1927 catalogue (continued)

At this point in the catalogue there is a sudden burst of colour.  The items which merit this special treatment are Japanned Trays.  

All of these trays are said to be hand polished and the gold edges are printed in the catalogue using some sort of metallic ink.  But even this does not disguise the fact that these are but sorry hangovers of the once splendid and elaborate japanning work which was carried out in Wolverhampton.  Hand polished or not, this was mass production.  All of these designs of tray (and the ones on the right are said to be "Pollard Oak") come in size from 12 inches to 26 inches, in two inch increments.

The trays on the left are said to have a "Metal Border".  One has a feeling that, had it been real gold leaf, they would have said so.  Nevertheless the black and gold brings them nearer to the old style than any of the others.  The ugly trays to the right are called "Carlton" and are said the be "Registered".  Presumably this means a registered design.  I can't think why they bothered.

The oval trays are called "Elgin".  The round ones on the right are not trays at all, but "waiters" and they came in many colours but only in two small sizes, 10 and 12 inches;   there were also oval  waiters, (shown below) which were only available at 15inches wide.  The only dictionary definition I can find suggests that waiters were smaller trays but I get the impression from this and other catalogues that a waiter was used for carrying things to unload on the table (and was then taken away) and a tray was put down on the table and left there.

The Japanned Child's trays are shown in black and white only, which, in view of the three designs available, (we exhibit the least tacky), is probably just as well.  But "The inverted rim prevents the milk or other liquid, which the child may upset, from soiling the table-cloth, and the trough along the front edge saves Baby's clothes and the carpet".

Whilst on the subject of the decline of japanning, here is a cash box - one of three types available, as well as two types of deed box.  This cash box came in five sizes, up to 12 inches, and could have one of 4 different locks fitted.  Cash boxes went out of use as more cash registers and tills came into use but they hung around in many people's houses for many years, and were amongst the last of the japanned goods to be regularly made, typically in black with gold and red lining.

We turn now to the more prosaic world of the larder.

The canisters on the left were available for 2lb or 3 lbs and with assorted lettering.  But the flour box on the right was available for 1/2, 3/4 or 1 stone of flour.  The flour box was not available with other lettering as flour was the only item which would be kept in such large quantities.

Spices, of course, came in much smaller quantities.  This spice rack comes in assorted colours but only with the lettering for cinnamon, allspice, mace, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.  The thing on the right of the rack is probably a nutmeg grater.

In the days before refrigerators were at all widespread, one would need the meat safe on the left. On the right are cake cabinets, available in assorted colours, including grained oak, and all with white enamelled shelves.

The remarkable thing about the cake cabinets were that they were all fitted with a lock.  Who were you trying to keep out?  The maid?  Your overweight husband?

We are now in the scullery, wash house or brew house.  You would put your used items in the laundry bin until the water was heated in the copper and the whole, horrible, rigmarole of washday had come round again. And, of course, you would need something like the "Dinkum Housemaid's Pail", to make life a little easier for your servants.

If all of this is getting a bit much, you might feel inclined to relax in a nice hot bath:

Orme's did not make the galvanised wash tubs which traditionally hung on the wall of the back yard but they did offer the sponge bath on the left, which was either 33 or 36 inches wide.  It still had a handle for hanging it up.  On the right is an Oxford Hip Bath, an altogether more dignified affair, suitable for use in the bedroom, wither the maid would bring the hot water in one of the hot water pails we have already seen Orme's providing. 

But if you are really fed up with living in the 1920s household, you could pack your Scarborough or your Dover steel travelling trunk and go on holiday. This is the Dover.  When you had packed it, it would be usual to send it to your hotel, a few days in advance, by railway.  Nothing was simple in those days.