An arts and crafts brass and copper lantern attributed to The Faulkner Bronze Co. or later Jesson, Birkett & Co. The framework entirely original and of very good patination and supporting the large and impressive vaseline-glass globular lampshade probably by Thomas Webb & Sons.

Ht.(overall)51cm/20in, Ht.(shade)18.5/7.25, W.23/9

Faulkner Bronze Company/ Jesson, Birkett & Co. Ltd

1901-1910

• The Faulkner Bronze Company was formed in 1901 by the Directors, Fred. G. Faulkner, Thomas Birkett and Arthur. G. Jesson based in Tenby Street, Birmingham. 

• The firm produced light fittings, copper wares and Loetz style glass wares enclosed in copper under the “Cobral Ware” mark, a process they patented in 1901.

• Thomas Birkett was a former member of the Birmingham Guild of handicraft and he was joined at Faulkner Bronze Company by other former Guildsmen, John Webster and A. E. Williams.

• Also at Faulkner Bronze was Spencer Humphrey, known for his repousse work, and designers, Bert Harvey and Anne Grisdale Stubbs. Anne was a star pupil and gold medallist at the Birmingham School of Art. She later married Thomas Birkett.

• The firm only lasted for a few years and was reconstituted as Jesson, Birkett & Co Ltd in 1904 when Fred Faulkner retired.

• The firm continued to make the most exquisite copper and mixed metal inkwells, cigarette boxes and light fittings, often using older Richard Llewellyn Rathbone designs.

• Anne G. Stubbs was clearly a key designer for the firm and her work was often illustrated in The Studio.

• The firm tended to use either enamels or Ruskin Pottery roundels for decoration.

• The firm wound up in 1910 and Thomas Birkett went on to work for Simplex Conduits Ltd in Birmingham.

Stourbridge Glass, Birmingham

Thomas Webb & Sons, Henry G. Richardson & Sons,  Stevens & Williams, John Walsh Walsh

• The industry was established at the beginning of the 17th century by glass-makers from Lorraine in north-eastern France

• The industry grew and evolved for the next 275 years and glass from Wordsley, Amblecote and Brierley Hill is recognised as amongst the finest in the world

• Birmingham Lighting designers such as Best & Lloyd, Faraday & Sons, Osler & Co, James Hinks & Son and Messenger & Sons employ the Stourbridge factories to produce the glass-ware for their lights.

• Mostly it is impossible to say which firm produced a particular lampshade but some patterns were registered/catalogued and can therefore occasionally be attributed.