1834 Museum Exhibition in London - Buddings Mower & Punch for Repairing Straps

CATALOGUE  OF THE  MUSEUM  OF  NATIONAL MANUFACTURES  AND OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS,

No. 28, LEICESTER SQUARE, ESTABLISHED IN CONTINUATION, WITH EXTENSION OF THE DESIGN, 

OF THE NATIONAL REPOSITORY,  FORMERLY IN THE KING'S MEWS.  1834.  LONDON:

PRINTED BY G. ECCLES, 101, FENCHURCH STREET. ⠀&c. &c.

PRELIMINARY NOTICE.

THE prosecution of the objects contemplated by the promoters of the NATIONAL REPOSITORY in the King's Mews was suddenly interrupted, in the beginning of the year 1832, by the abrupt resumption of the premises for military purposes. Difficulties, inseparable from the early steps of an untried undertaking having numerous and extended bearings, had retarded the full development of the design of that Institution. Those difficulties were fast disappearing when the interruption occurred which momentarily disconcerted, but did not discourage, those supporters of the Establishment who, from a conviction of its public utility, had lent their strenuous aid in its advancement. The forcible disturbance of the order of proceedings disjointed many of the arrangements made for the improvement and extension of the plan, annihilated much that had been accomplished in the promotion of the design, and threw back into the condition of a new undertaking, that which had already sur- mounted the obstacles opposed to its incipient career.

On less precarious ground, with improved experience, greater facilities, and fairer prospects of successful co-operation with the practical and productive classes, the pursuit of the objects formerly contemplated is now resumed, under such alterations and modification of plan and measures, as past and present circumstances have seemed to dictate and to warrant. Taking advantage of the temporary suspension of operations, it has been thought right to abandon the former name, which in no way expressed the character so as to indicate any of the objects of the Institution, and to adopt one more appropriate to the design. At the same time, to give strength and weight to that department of the Establishment which alone can firmly connect it with and make it eventually valuable to the public, both as producers and as consumers-that branch, in which shall reside the power of deciding on the admissibility of objects presented for exhibition,-a much wider range than heretofore has been taken in inviting the assistance of scientific and practical men to constitute a Board of Approval. Men eminent or skilled in their several departments have promptly acceded to the invitation, and have united their services to form a tribunal to which the manufacturer, the mechanist, or the skilled artisan may refer their several productions, in the full confidence of finding therein a sound and an impartial judgment.

THE MUSEUM OF NATIONAL MANUFACTURES AND OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS is intended, not to interfere with the province of the distributor of useful products-for his intermediate agency is indispensable, and must be compensated in every society which has advanced beyond the rudest stages, but to encourage and to stimulate the producer in any effort at improvement in his art, by making more direct and easy his path to public notice, and to consequent distinction from any superiority which may be found in his productions. Whatever conceals the manufacturer and the artisan from the view of the consumer of their productions, tends to deaden in them all desire of self-improvement in their particular provinces; from the conviction which obscurity superinduces of the hopelessness of all attempts to draw upon their individual works the public eye and the public approbation. They content themselves with keeping within the current of the markets, by not deviating in any important way from the customary practice of their trades; even following example, if the bias be so given, in the progressive deterioration of the qualities of their commodities, to enable producers to meet the destructive offers of insufficient prices. But, in a period of high cultivation, the knowledge and judgment and taste diffused, the wealth accumulated, and the habits thence engendered, ask-nay, demand-perfection in all the arts which minister to the comfort, the gratification, the enjoyment, and even to the luxury of man. In our country, and in our times, we have especial inducements beyond all these, to stimulate to improvement the productive classes of our community in every department of their industry. If we are to support a large proportion of our population and to draw wealth to our country from foreign sources by the export of labour, and if we would seek for more than an ephemeral demand for that labour, it must be skilfully directed, and ably and honestly applied. It is not sufficient that we produce superfluously; we must produce that which will be sought for and received as the most useful and serviceable of its kind. Our common com- modities of export must be good at their price; not merely low-priced, and nearly worthless: our productions of more costly stamp must be intrinsically excellent, and fashioned with that regard to effect, which the judgment and taste of an improved and progressing age look for. The actual means of all civilized communities demand, and can compensate, the highest efforts of skilled industry. The wealthy of our own country are eminently in a condition to employ productions of the most assiduous and careful art, and they are prone to estimate them at their just value; they more espe- cially ought not to be allowed to have an opportunity of saying, "We can purchase finer and better things elsewhere." We have resources in manufacturing and mechanical art greater than were ever at the command of another people of any age; let it not be said that we avail ourselves of those resources with less skill, industry, or integrity, than another people would. If, beyond the wants and capabilities of our own society in its actual condition, there be a sound national policy-as there is to urge us to attain the highest rank amongst manufacturing nations, it becomes a more positive duty in those who can originate and maintain effective influence amongst the people, to cherish every means, to avail themselves of every instrument, which may ameliorate our internal state, and tend to strengthen and make permanent our power to draw from the world around us subsistence for a population now redundant above our intrinsic sources of supply. 

We must aim at becoming, for the present age at least, not only the most extensive, but the soundest manufacturers on the globe; and, under that character, our local advantages will give us a high and an enduring pre-eminence. Experience shows incontestibly, that emulation to excel can be most readily and most powerfully excited by bringing into open comparison, works on the respective merits of which public judgment must decide, and public favour mete out the reward. Public exhibitions alone have, within half a century, reared up the Fine Arts in our own country from the most meagre and puny condition to full and healthful vigour. Such exhibitions have spread rapidly amongst artists accumulating technical knowledge, and made them cognizant of every step which a master-mind has made in advance. Artists have been created by imitation, and multiplied in an increasing ratio by the growing ease of acquiring art. But the knowledge thus wrought out and made practical and productive by open displays, has not been confined in its influence to artists merely; it has infused itself into the thoughts and judgments of the unprofessional community; it has generated learned patrons and critical admirers of art, and spread a discriminating taste through the public, as widely and as rapidly as growing art and improving artists gave works of higher merit to be appreciated and appropriated. Like results cannot fail to follow the employment of similar means in reference to the cultivators of the Useful Arts. They, equally susceptible with the painter and the sculptor of the generous spirit of emulation, will, like them, seek distinction, when they know that distinction is readily to be won by superior desert. They will strive to excel, when excellence is known to command applause and compensation; and the wish to do well will always beget the ability. As in the productions of the Fine Arts, so in the products of the Useful Arts, the constant side-by-side displays of comparative excellencies will inform the public mind, and give it the faculty to discriminate betwixt the specious and the sound.

THE MUSEUM OF NATIONAL MANUFACTURES AND OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS is designed to open a ready access to public notice for the productions of Manufacturers; of Inventors and Fabricators of Machines, Tools, and Implements; of Designers and Draughtsmen employed about works subserving the several branches of useful art; and for pieces of workmanship of individual Artisans, characterised by superior skill, ingenuity, or taste. But as an indiscriminate admission for exhibition of all objects within the prescribed range which might be sent, would be subversive of the end proposed-the direction of public favour to superior desert-it is essential that every article admitted be distinguished from the ordinary productions of the same class, either by some improvement or superiority of fabric; or by some novelty of material, style, design, or mode of production; or by ingenuity of contrivance, or extended usefulness of application; or, finally, by some marked excellence of execution, indicative of more than ordinary skill, assiduity, taste, or dexterity in the workman.

Objects may be presented for admission to the Museum at any period of the year, and they will be submitted to the decision of the Board of Approval at their next subsequent meeting; but as the Catalogue will be drawn up at the commencement of each season, the more extensive publicity to be derived from notice in that publication will be confined to such articles as are sent in early in the season.

As no charge will be incurred by Exhibitors in the Museum, their contributions must be delivered and removed at their own expense; and the casualties of the deposit must be at the risk of each owner. All Communications also on the business of the Exhibition must be free of postage.

The Gentlemen who constitute the Board of Approval render their important assistance voluntarily and during their pleasure; restricting their office simply to that of a tribunal of judgment on the admissibility of objects presented for exhibition. CHARLES TOPLIS, Director.

FIRST SALOON.

19 Punch for Repairing instantaneously a broken Rein or Strap.

Mr. Ferrabee, Phoenix Foundry, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

LOWER GALLERY.

13 Budding's Mowing Machine for Pleasure Grounds (patent).

Mr. J. Ferrabee, Phoenix Foundry, near Stroud. Agents in London, Messrs. Lewis and Davis, 10, Basinghall Street.