11°C
In our Collections Centre at Winterbourne, we have a room dedicated to archival material relating to Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds (GKN). I have been working on a catalogue of items manufactured by a subsidiary of GKN called Joseph Sankey & Sons, dated March 1905.
Sankey’s came into being when Samuel Joseph Sankey bought out the partnership of the firm he worked for in 1854. He had served an apprenticeship with a blank tray maker, where he learned design and mechanical drawing. During the 1860s Joseph acquired a rolling mill and ironworks in Stonefields – this became the Bilston Iron Company, which gave him control over the firm’s supply of tinplate and sheet iron. Steam-powered stampings were installed so that heavier gauge metal could be used, enabling them to extend their range to kettles and frying pans. The firm’s range became huge, and they exported around the world.
By 1891 Joseph Sankey had adopted the SPHINX trademark, which subsequently appeared on many of their production items.
The 1905 catalogue is an “office copy” and there are hand-written annotations and pieces of paper pasted in. It was in continuous use up to 1937.
Here are just a few of the hundreds of products in the catalogue:
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- There are plenty of products for the gardener too. The ‘Pool’s Transplanter’ is described as ‘an entirely new departure in garden tools – every Lady Gardner should possess one’!
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- Machine-made Jelly Moulds would have been used for blancmanges. Metal jelly moulds date back to around 1830, whereas glass moulded jelly moulds became popular from the 1930s. Copper moulds, which were popular, were tinned on the inside to prevent poisoning.
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- This page of brightly coloured embossed plates is dated 1937 and has been slipped into the catalogue alongside similar designs from 1905. The “Neptune” embossing process was developed by Sankeys in around 1890. Tinplate ran through colour rollers to undercoat both sides. Products such as tabletops, trays and ashtrays were then embossed and painted.
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- Garden pests should beware the terrifying “Demon Beetle Trap”, allegedly the most effective and popular trap in the world!
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- Sankey’s made an enormous range of kitchen equipment. The “Kin-Hee” Quick Pots were for making tea and coffee. The Kin-Hee coffee pot is a percolator pot. The ‘Eclipse Egg Poacher’ at the bottom of the page is described as ‘the latest thing in egg poachers’!
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- Steel Clad, Copper & Galvanised Steel Enamelled Baths include a hospital bath with wheels and a handle.
