An impressive pair of cast brass art nouveau wall lights by James Hinks & Son, each with a good vaseline-glass lampshade by James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars glass, England c.1905.

James Hinks & Son, Birmingham 1865-1925

• The Foundation of Hinks success was the invention of the Duplex Oil Burner in 1865
• Hinks duplex burners were supplied to lampmakers word-wide including Tiffany
• By 1907 Hinks is producing his own range of Art Nouveau lighting at Great Hampton Street & Hockley Street, Birmingham
• James Hinks and Son only survived briefly into the new era and was taken over by Falk Stadelmann in 1925

Whitefriars Glass Company, London

James Powell & Sons

• In 1834 James Powell,  then a 60-year-old London wine merchant and entrepreneur, purchased the Whitefriars Glass Company, a small glass-works off Fleet Street in London.

• Powell, and his sons Arthur and Nathanael, were newcomers to glass making, but soon acquired the necessary expertise and specialised in making church stain glass windows.

• During the latter part of the c.19th, the firm formed a close association with leading architects and designers. Whitefriars produced the glass that Phillip Webb used in his designs for William Morris

• By 1900 production lines of  vaseline and opalescent glass-ware, including lampshades, were proving to be extremely successful with clients such as William Arthur Smith Benson using their glass in the design of their lights.

• The firm’s name was changed to Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd in 1919