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More information on some of the people mentioned above has been found;
Matthew Dixon
Dixon was born around 1781 in Birmingham and lived at Huntley Lane, Aston. On the 1841 UK Census he said he was a silversmith but by 1851 he called himself a plated wares manufacturer.
He died in 1860.
John Pritchard
Pritchard was born around 1798 in Birmingham and lived in Regents Place, Birmingham in 1841 and said he was a jeweller and in 1851 a master jeweller employing 18 people.
Census websites give no detail for him after 1851.
Gideon Goold
Goold was born in Surrey around 1816.
In 1851 he lived at 41 Caroline Street, Aston, near Birmingham and said he was a master jeweller employing 7 people.
In 1861 he was living in Victoria Road, Aston and said he was a jeweller.
He was absent from the family home at 1 Heathfield Road Aston Villa for the 1871 Census where his wife recorded he was a traveller.
His first wife Catharine Sarah died in 1874. He remarried in 1881
He reappeared on the 1881 Census at 57, Claremont Road, West Ham, Essex as a jeweller; again he was a widower,
He was at Milverton House, Knowle, near Solihull, Warwickshire in 1891 and 1901 living on his own means. he had remarried again.
He died in 1904.
Josiah Hickman
Hickman was born in Warwickshire around 1781.
In 1841 he lived at Warstone Lane, Birmingham and said he was a jeweller.
The death of a Josiah Hickman is recorded in Birmingham in 1851.
Thomas Prime
Prime was born in Worcestershire around 1797.
In 1851 he lived at 145, Villa Road, Handsworth near Birmingham and said he was a manufacturer of plate.
At the same address in 1861 he said he was a silversmith and electroplate manufacturer employing 44 people
He died in 1881.
William Spurrier
Spurrier was born in Edgbaston near Birmingham around 1781.
In 1841 he lived at Bristol Road Mill Edgbaston and said he was a silver roller.
In 1851 at 56 Belgrave Street Kings Norton near Birmingham he said he was a retired metal roller.
It isn’t possible to positively identify him on the 1861 Census.
He appears to have died in 1866.
John Reading
Reading was born in Birmingham around 1811.
In 1841 he lived in Upper Hospital Street Birmingham but the Census record of his employment is unreadable.
In 1851 he lived in Harbourne Heath Road, Harbourne, near Birmingham and said he was a machinist.
In 1861 he was at 83, Spencer Street, Birmingham, a jeweller employing 8 people.
In 1871 he lived in Moor Pool Lane, Heath Road, Harbourne and was still a jeweller.
At the same address in 1881 he said he had retired.
He died in 1886.
Hubert Hall
Hall was born around 1830 in Birmingham
In 1851 he lived at the second house number 4 Couch (that’s what it appears to say!) and said he was a jeweller.
In 1861-1881 he was at 6, Augusta Street, Birmingham and was still a jeweller. The 1861 record names him as Hurbert.
He died in 1888.
Thomas Prime of Birmingham. I wonder if there is any connection with the Joseph Prime who is noted in Gordon Crosskeys wonderful new work on Sheffield Plate. He notes him as a London ironmonger at 85 Holborn and customer of Sheffield plater Joseph Wilson. Thomas Prime's Birmingham firm was founded 1818, perhaps when he was 21 and at the end of an apprenticeship. This would tie in with the birth date of 1797. As one of the "prime" movers of the introduction of electrochemical plating it would be nice to know more of his early life before he appears recorded in Bradbury's in 1839. Davesays
Page 373 of Volume 1 of John Culme’s Directory of Gold & Silversmiths 1838-1914 indicates that Thomas Prime commenced his career as a close plater in Northwood Street, Birmingham and developed a method for plating “founded on Faraday’s great discovery of induction which he first described in 1840…..”
The 1849 advertisement pictured above indicates that Thomas Prime’s magnetic plating works had been in operation for more than 6 years.
John Culme’s book goes onto say that by 1851 Thomas Prime senior was joined in partnership by his son Thomas Teritus trading as Thomas Prime & Son at the Magneto Plate Works 18 & 19 Northwood Street and later opened other showrooms at Charterhouse Street London. They also exhibited at various international exhibitions. The partnership is said to have been dissolved in 1891 and the notes in the book indicate the trade was continued for a short while by T T Prime. Thomas Prime is said to have died in 1892.
UK Census shows Thomas junior was born in 1826. The UK record of Deaths shows the one in 1892 was in fact the 66 year old Thomas junior. Thomas senior is recorded having died in 1881 aged 84 years. There was a third Thomas Prime born in 1857 the son of Thomas junior which may explain the implication that Thomas senior was still in the partnership in 1891 aged 94 years.
To search for a connection between Thomas Prime and Joseph Prime, the London ironmonger, a starting point would be to ascertain Joseph’s place and year of birth to see if any link can be found to Worcestershire where Thomas recorded he was born.
Mike , Many thanks for the extra information posted re: Thomas Prime. Bradbury p451, give the unregistered marks of J rather than T Prime but no other source. If Thomas Senior had started in 1818 age 21 perhaps it was with his father. He or they must have been active platers long before the introduction of the Faraday based system and I wonder what mark, if any might have been used. Davesays
His birthplace is given in an extract of the 1851 UK Census and was mentioned above as Worcestershire. For the Forum record further research has shown Thomas Prime was however born in Bickenhill, Warwickshire.
Following a short lived partnership with one William Brown, as Brown & Wheelwright, of 66 Constitution Hill, Birmingham , Bernard Wheelwright entered his first solo mark with the Birmingham Assay Office on the 27th July 1858.
Trev, The AP mark noted for Thomas Prime may have been meant to represent ARGENTINE PLATE. Your exellent photo seems to show the typical surface of marks punched through an applied silver foil surface as per Close Plate on Steel but this time on a cupro nickel base , trade name "Argentine ." Burnisherboy.
James Gargory entered his first mark, as an Optician, at the Birmingham Assay Office, on the 13th August 1834, his second mark was entered on the 3rd August 1836, and his third mark was entered on the 3rd January 1856. The first two entries are recorded from 4, Bull Street, and the third from 5, Bull Street.
Trev, Many thanks for the Round advert and all the other examples. I appreciate that Rounds were one of the big names in the plated trade and it is remarkable how much interesting detail is to be found in the contemperary adverts. Rounds are said to have started in 1847 and to have supplied Hutton's who in their turn were said by Bradbury, p 338, to have first offered "Argentine" in 1833. The Prime mark, AP could also stand for Albata Plate, another contemperary trade name in use long before Rounds may have claimed it! Burnisherboy.
I've only recently found this forum, and I'd like to make a few observations about Thomas Prime and Son. There were three Thomas Primes connected with the firm. The first, Thomas "the founder", was baptised in Elmdon (Warwickshire) in 1796, the son of Samuel Prime (parish clerk for 42 years) and Elizabeth Burr. Thomas' older brother, John Prime, was a close plater in Birmingham (bef.1821), who appears in Trades Directories at this time. Thomas probably joined him in business in Northwood Street (the firm began in 1818).
Thomas Prime was advertising as a "plater on steel" by 1830 - when he had probably set up in business on his own. John Prime (aged 65) appears on the 1841 census, described as a "journeyman plater" in Birmingham. Thomas Prime was ambitious and when an engineer called J.S.Woolrich invented a magneto-dynamo capable of plating silver onto base metal, Prime installed a machine in his factory in 1842. This machine still exists and is on display in Birmingham Science Museum. The great Michael Faraday apparently visited Prime's factory to see his theories about electro-magnetic induction put to a practical purpose, and was most impressed by all accounts. By 1851 Prime was employing 37 people at his *Magneto Works*, producing plated and also sterling silver. Prime exhibited at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851, and at the Paris Exibition in 1856. A pattern book of his dated 1870 illustrates a variety of different types of domestic silver and plate that the firm produced. By 1871 the firm was employing 30 men, 6 boys and 11 women. Thomas Prime was active in local politics, serving on the Birmingham Council from 1843 until 1877, and he was elected Mayor from 1869 to 1870. He died in 1881, and the firm passed to his son Thomas Prime II. Thomas Prime II ran the firm in partnership with his son, Thomas Tertius Prime ("Tertius" meaning "third") until the partnership was formerly disolved in July 1891 (notice in the London Gazette). Thomas II died shortly afterwards in 1892. The firm continued with Thomas Tertius Prime at the helm until around 1900, when the Magneto-plate works ceased to trade. Incidentally, the first Thomas Prime's sister, Esther, married Jonas Bowen in 1806 Edgebaston. Their sons were George and Jonas Bowen, initially in partnership as silversmiths and electroplaters, and then with their own businesses in Birmingham by the late nineteenth century.
Bob
John Woolley entered his first mark at the Birmingham Assay Office as a Watch Pendant Maker on the 18th January 1826 from an address at Cannon Street, Birmingham. He entered a second mark at the BAO on the 24th January 1856 from 72, Bath Street, Birmingham.
Timothy Parker and Thomas Acott entered their first mark at the Birmingham Assay Office from an address at 54, Brearly Street, Birmingham on the 9th April 1845. They entered a second mark at the BAO from the same address on the 1st November 1847.
