Rosie Smith is a postgraduate researcher within CPHC. Her research focuses on nineteenth century promotional catalogues for ironware products, with a focus on the Coalbrookdale Company of Shropshire. In October, Rosie undertook a week-long research trip to Edinburgh and Falkirk to visit the Falkirk Council Archives, National Library of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, and the National Museums of Scotland. Scottish ironware was particularly well regarded in the nineteenth century, with firms like the Carron Company, MacFarlane’s Castings, and Falkirk Iron Company often being compared with the Coalbrookdale Company. The catalogues provided a valuable insight into the types of catalogues which were published in the cast iron industry and the type technologies used—a mixture of wood-engraving, plate-engraving, lithography, and even photography towards the end of the century.
One of the main reasons for the visit was to build a picture of what was standard in the production of trade catalogues in the iron trade, to ascertain how innovative the Coalbrookdale Company catalogue was, particularly their 1875 catalogue which was particularly large and of high quality. Rosie viewed and documented nearly fifty ironware catalogues from comparable Scottish firms and found that some had a comparable density of illustrations with fold-out pages, high quality printing, to that seen in the Coalbrookdale catalogues. These examples will help identify potential examples from other ironworks which may have served as inspiration or impetus to Coalrbookdale. There was certainly a culture of ‘borrowing’ designs for products from rival ironworks within the Midlands, even registered designs, which was probably made possible through the company catalogues. Rosie will be analysing the Scottish catalogues to see if this ‘borrowing’ of designs also crossed the English-Scottish border.
A happy by-product of being in Scotland during the autumn was being able to enjoy some of the beautiful historic buildings, crisp weather, and great museum collections related to printing history and ironware. The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, features a decorative green and gold drinking fountain by MacFarlane & Co from the 1880s, and a Columbian Printing Press from c.1860, on display just a few metres from one another. The archive of the National Library of Scotland features a beautiful view across the city to Arthur’s Seat and the Leith coastline, where the sunsets would occasionally draw Rosie’s attention from the research. The Falkirk Council Archives receives special mention for being housed within Callendar House, a Hogwarts-esque grand mansion in grounds whose history can be traced back to the Roman Empire. Overall, it was a very productive and enjoyable trip featuring many printed materials which will make a valuable contribution to Rosie’s research.
Roseanna Smith, CPHC and Midlands4Cities AHRC Doctoral Researcher in partnership with
Ironbridge Gorge Museum
THESIS TITLE Common Printed Things: Intersections of art and industry in the Coalbrookdale Collection 1850–1930