PLATE XLIII.

A

METAL BEDSTEAD,

BY WINFIELD OF BIRMINGHAM.

Perhaps to the uninitiated there is no term which would be likely to convey a more false impressionthan that which is generally employed to designate one of the most important branches of the staple commerceof Birmingham . The “brass toy trade ,” despite its nominal insignificance, has probably contributed more thanany other to the prosperity of that busy town; and no slight activity and energy are required to enable theprincipal firms in that branch of manufacture to send out, to the very ends of the earth, all that endlessvariety of articles of furnishing application, in which brass figures as the most important fundamental material.By the courtesy of the well-known firm at whose establishment the object we engrave was executed, and byavailing ourselves of the practical knowledge of the subject possessed and kindly placed at our disposal byMr. W. C. Aitken, by whom many interesting annotations were furnished to the “ Official Illustrated Catalogue,”we have acquired some information respecting the operations and processes of the Birmingham metal “ toytrade,” upon which we proceed to offer the following remarks.

It has been estimated that at the beginning of the eighteenth century the consumption of brass inBirmingham amounted to about 100 tons annually, and it may be safely affirmed that it reaches 10,000 tons atthe present time. Upwards of 7000 individuals find employment in the various departments of the trade.

The Cambridge Street Works (at which the bedstead was executed which forms the subject of ourillustration) were originally commenced in 1820, upon a comparatively limited scale. So greatly have theyincreased, however, since that period, that upwards of 600 workmen now ply their busy craft within thelimits of the factory. Of the above-mentioned number of workmen, 150 are engaged in the manufacture ofmetal bedsteads; an equal number in the fabrication of the best quality of gas - fittings; and the remainder inthe production of stamped brass ornaments for upholstery furnishings, metal tubing, wire, and the partial pre-paration of some of the objects which are subsequently completed by smaller manufacturers. An idea of theextent of its operations may be gathered from the fact, that 130 tons of copper and 45 tons of zinc are annuallyconsumed in the making of brass, and that upwards of 100 of the ordinary iron bedsteads are sent off everyweek. Many very important improvements in the construction of metallic bedsteads have been invented andintroduced in this establishment; among others, that of making the pillars which support the tester con-tinuous, instead of out of a number of small pieces. This arrangement has imparted to them a stability previouslyunattainable, owing to the great strain which leverage brought upon the metal collars employed to unite theshort lengths of tube required on the old system to make up each pillar.

The bedstead of which our lithograph is a representation was made expressly for the Great Exhibition , andpossesses many pleasing details in the style of the French Renaissance. The cast scroll-work is harmoniousin its curves: the little Cupids are prettily introduced, and the general design is agreeable and con-sistent with the conventionalities proper to works in metal. In the lightness and tenuity of the parts,the length of the columnar proportions, and the general sharpness of the details, the chaiacter of the materialhas been well expressed; and we may notice this object as especially free from that uncomfortable bulkinessof form, which, although proper only to wood, is yet so frequently to be met with in modern metal-work,especially w r hen applied to furniture. It was, however, as a specimen of workmanship of the best class thatthis bedstead was to be especially admired. The perfection of the various plane faces, the fleshy texture of