BARRINGER, WALLIS & MANNERS, Limited,

Chromo Lithographers and Tinplate Printers, Manufacturers of Decorated Tin Boxes, Show Tablets, &c, MANSFIELD.

LONDON Offices and Show Rooms-160 Fleet Street.          GLASGOW Office-Herald Buildings, 69 Buchanan Street.

Telegrams: —"Manners, Mansfield."

NOT the least interesting of what may be termed comparatively new industries, is that of enamelling or decorating on tin. Manufacturers who pack their commodities in tin-ware have not been slow to realise the advantages of using decorated tins, and so greatly superior are the latter in appearance that the old method of labelling is tending to become a thing of the past.

View of Mansfield Works.
View of Mansfield Works.

In the front rank of decorated tin-makers is the well-known firm of Barringer, Wallis and Manners, Ltd., whose manufactories are situated at Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield. Through the courtesy of the firm we are enabled to give a short description of the business carried on by them.

Entering the Mansfield Works, we pass first through the general office, light, airy, well-appointed, and fitted with every commercial convenience. Here we find a staff of clerks engaged in book-keeping and correspondence, the latter department being carried on by young ladies, whose nimble fingers cause the type-writing machines to click, click, incessantly. In passing, we take a peep at the Directors' private room, which is handsomely decorated and furnished with exquisite taste. From the opposite side of the general office we enter the works, and are conducted to the engineering department, or what is more commonly called the fitting shop. Here a wealth of machinery meets our gaze, and it is at once evident that this department is an important one. It is here that all the intricate and highly-finished dies of every description and shape used in the making of the various tin boxes and canisters are made and kept in order. These are, in the first instance, designed and worked out by mechanical draughtsmen employed by the firm. The forgings 'are next made in the blacksmith's department, and from their hands are passed into those of skilled and experienced mechanics, who form and fashion them into the shape required. Needless to say, many of these dies are exceedingly costly, sometimes as much as £100 being spent in labour in making a single set, in spite of the fact that every modern labour-saving appliance is brought to bear in their manufacture in order to lessen the cost of production as much as possible.

View of Works, Sutton-in-Ashfield.
View of Works, Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Leaving the fitting shop we next come to the artists' department, and in strange contrast to the din and noise of the former is the quietude of the latter department. Herein is the industry assisted along, not by din of hammer and anvil, forge, or lathe, but the gentle, though insistent pen and brush and craftsman's delicate instruments.

From the busy designers emanates a continual flow of new creations for decorating the innumerable classes and styles of tin boxes for biscuits, tea, coffee, cocoa, syrups, confectionery, mustard, pepper, salt, tobacco, snuffs, cigarettes, health salines, chemical foods, dubbins, furniture polish, soft soap, etc.

Not only are the designers busy with the varied classes of tin decoration, but artists of both London, Paris, and provincial studios are constantly in commission for paintings and sketches for show cards, tablets, and pictorial advertisements ; many of which we admired hanging on the walls of the studio are here reproduced on lithographic stones by artists of special abilities for this class of work.