General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

3

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

paper

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

27.3 cm

Width

19.7 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Printing

Category

Printed specimens

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Tearne

Country

England

State/Province

Unknown

City

Birmingham

Context

Country

United Kingdom

State/Province

Unknown

Period

Unknown

Canada

An item from the collection of Andrew Audubon Merrilees, a noted Canadian collector of railwayana. In the mid 1960s, Mr. Merrilees learned that the British company Tearne and Sons was melting old decals to recover gold and silver used during their production. He purchased some of the remaining collection The Merrilees collection consists of 895 designs of transfers and 5803 individual decals, in their original paper form, including examples of letters, numbers and ornaments, as well as coats of arms, trade marks, monograms and other images used mostly on railway stock in Great Britain, Canada, and on colonial railways worldwide. The majority of Mr.Merrilees collection was sent to the National Archives circa 1980, his printed material to the National Library and the Ontario Archives. The material in this donation was retained by Andrew Merrilees Ltd., currently owned by Dr. Robert Stewart. (Acquisition proposal for AK0114 archival material by D.Monaghan; Acquisition proposal for AK0114 transfers by A. Adamek; both in Supp. Info.)

Function

A form of decal used to label and decorate railway equipment, ships, and industrial equipment instead of hand painting.

Technical

An example of an industrial transfer. The lithographic transfer technique was invented ca. 1756 by John Sadler and Guy Green, well-known printers and engravers working for Josiah Wedgewood. By 1770, the decalcomania brought down the price of pottery decoration from £2 per piece to 20 pence. The technique spread form England to Sweden, Germany, France and North America. In Germany, the transfers were used to imitate gold leaf on iron sewing machines and wood clocks, and soon they were applied to household appliances, coaches, railway cars and industrial machinery around the world. By 1880, decalcomania had become one of the most common methods of ornamentation of technological artifacts. The Merrilees collection contains examples of patterns and master designs which illustrate the first steps in the lithographic production, as well as samples of all types of decal paper, colours and transferring techniques available at the turn of the last century. The transfers represent the vanished phase of decorative arts that originated in the Victoriana extrinsic ornamentation and carried on well into the first decades of the 20th century. Tearne & Sons Ltd. was established by Samuel Tearne in 1856. Located in the famous Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, it mainly manufactured jewellery boxes. With its experience in decorative arts and interest in the newest technologies, the company started producing transfers for bicycles in the 1870s and by the end of the century it was the main manufacturer of railway transfer art in Great Britain. Tearne soon supplied decals to many major companies worldwide, as well as municipalities and counties, the Royal Household and the British armed forces. The company is still in existence under different ownership. (Acquisition proposal for AK0114 transfers by A. Adamek; Supp. Info.)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

none

Missing

N/A

Finish

white with silver image

Decoration

silver images of vase