A set of four arts and crafts wall lights attributed to the Birmingham Guild of handicraft, each roundel of lightly-hammered copper,  with very attractive variable patina and supporting pendant a Stourbridge vaseline-glass lampshade, English,c.1900.

(N.B. one shade slightly larger than remaining three).

Diam. 21cm/8.5ins; depth 22/8.5; ht. as displayed 38/15.

The Birmingham Guild of Handicraft 1888-1905

• Birmingham Guild of Handicraft was an Arts & Crafts organisation. Its motto was ‘By Hammer and Hand’.

• Around 1888 It began as a loose part of the Birmingham Kyrle Society, then became a more fully formed group within the Kyrle Society in 1890

• In 1895, the Guild set up as an independent workshop and limited company with the guidance of Edward R. Taylor.

• The Guild produced furniture and metal-ware, taking special advantage of the switch to electric lighting and the consequent need for new light fittings.

• Arthur Dixon was the chief designer and head of metalwork workshop. Other members were Albert Edward Jones and Thomas Birkett.

• Due to commercial pressures, there was a merger with E & R Gittins in 1905

Stourbridge Glass, Birmingham

Thomas Webb & Sons, Henry G. Richardson & Sons,  Stevens & Williams, John Walsh Walsh

• The industry was established at the beginning of the 17th century by glass-makers from Lorraine in north-eastern France

• The industry grew and evolved for the next 275 years and glass from Wordsley, Amblecote and Brierley Hill is recognised as amongst the finest in the world

• Birmingham Lighting designers such as Best & Lloyd, Faraday & Sons, Osler & Co, James Hinks & Son and Messenger & Sons employ the Stourbridge factories to produce the glass-ware for their lights.

• Mostly it is impossible to say which firm produced a particular lampshade but some patterns were registered/catalogued and can therefore occasionally be attributed.