Jewelry Quarter Museum

Along with my "you've seen one big European church, you've seen them all" is my attitude towards, well, most touristy things in Europe. I sort of feel like, "been there done that." I've lived here long enough that so much of the normal thrills are becoming commonplace for me. All the castles look the same. All the churches look the same. All the cute little villages look the same.

I'm not complaining by any means. I'm just saying that it's all blending together and becoming normal.

So when Creedance asked what I wanted to do, I sort of gave her a "meh, whatever," attitude. I said that I liked musuems/churches/castles/famous people's birthplaces if they were cool. If I could be a nerd and learn something while there. And since my definition of cool could be considered relative, I'm sure she was in a pinch.

Enter Museum of the Jewellery Quarter. (No, I didn't misspell that. The Brits follow the French and add in extra letters unnecessarily.) The Jewelry Quarter of Birmingham is this cute little area that was the hub of jewelry making about 100+ years ago when it became all hip and chic for everyone to have a little silver or gold or bling.

These two guys, Smith and Pepper, opened a jewelry business and factory in 1899. In 1981, they just locked the doors and left. The place is preserved to look just like when they were there. The guided tour was superb. I even read somewhere that it was ranked third best guided tour in Europe. Wowzah. I learned about jewelry making, about factory work in the early 20th century, and how people could sneakily steal gold dust by greasing their hair. Fascinating.

Cool.

The tour starts off with an interactive room with all sorts of things to look at, touch, listen to, etc. Here's Creedance listening to one of the soundbites about the factory.

I was at first fascinated by the really old, really big Wrigley's Spearmint Gum tin. Then I listened to the soundbite with it and learned that it was an animal foot inside of it. (Gross.) However, the foot was used to dust the jewelry because the fur could hold onto whatever dust (gold or otherwise) that was sticking to the jewelry. I found that interesting. Weird, but interesting.
An art nouveau mirror made by Smith and Pepper. Isn't it lovely?
The guide took us into Mr. Smith's office. He explained that Miss Olive made tea just on the other side of the wall there. If a customer was going to make a large order, Mr. Smith would knock once on the wall next to Winston Churchill, and she would bring tea in for the customer. If the customer was going to make a very large order, he would knock twice, and she's bring tea and cookies. :)
Like I said, they didn't pack anything up when they left. They just locked the doors and walked away. Aparently, there were still teacups with dried up tea inside. We saw an old jar of Marmite. And in those registers on the shelves...a milk bill from 1899!!!
I was fascinated by the nostalgia. What cool old light switches!
One of the reasons they didn't continue their business was due to their age and how rapidly the world was changing. They just couldn't keep up with modern conveniences...or security codes. This was what one electrical socket looked like!
Papers everywhere! (This was all just the office...I didn't take as many photos in the factory part because I was so caught up in listening to what the guide was saying.)
He demonstrated a jeweler's workbench for us. Each one has a horseshoe shaped workbench that is unique to him. He showed us all sorts of things they would do there at the bench. Honestly, so interesting! This museum was no "been there, done that." It really was cool, and I learned alot. I'd highly recommend it if you ever go to Birmingham.

What was really neat, though, was that we met a real jeweler that day who fixed Creedance's ring for her! You can't really see it in this photo, but he has a horseshoe-shaped workbench just like from the museum! This man was so interesting. We asked him how he became a jeweler and he said he dropped out of school at 15, and figured he could learn how to be a jeweler, and he's been doing it for 40+ years.

He laughed joyfully and said, "You can tell I don't enjoy it." As we walked back to a different part of his shop, I noticed an open Bible laying on top of a shedder machine. The Bible was well-thumbed through and had a sticky note marking the page. I jokingly said, "I hope you're not planning on shredding that!" He glanced back at it and said, "Oh no. That there's my constant companion."

I knew then where his joy came from, and it wasn't jewelry making. How sweet to meet a brother to top off an already wonderful experience.