Perceptions of production and the retailing and marketing of quality metalware in eighteenth-century England

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe expansion of the metalware trade in England in the eighteenth century, and the rise of regional manufacturing towns such as Birmingham and Sheffield, challenged the perception of quality metalware. In particular, the introduction of new products and materials and the utilisation of flexible organisations of production gave the consumer greater choice and enhanced the public curiosity in manufacturing and innovation. These changes in production impacted on the marketing, and consequently the retailing and consumption, of metalware. Recent historiography has explored how individual retailers constructed their reputations for trustworthiness, as brokers of quality and taste. However, within the metalware trade in particular, the producer–retailer maintained an important role, a conspicuous presence in advertisements, and a crucial influence in the perception of quality. By looking more closely at marketing strategies, this article sheds light on the metalware trade and how consumer goods were marketed in the eighteenth century. Not only did the marketing of metalware involve the careful use of language and imagery in increasingly sophisticated methods of advertising in print, from newspaper advertisements and trade cards to trade directories, but also the design of shop spaces, networks of personal relationships, and the objects themselves.