London Labour and the London Poor, Volume 1
Mayhew, Henry
1861
Of the Street-Sellers of Children's Gilt Watches.
These articles were introduced into general street sale about years ago. They were then German made. The size was not much larger than that of a shilling, and to this tiny watch was appended as tiny a chain and seal. The street-price was only , and the wholesale price was the gross. They were sold at of the swag-shops, all "English and foreign," or "English and German" establishments. From the price it would appear that the profit was a dozen, but as the strect-sellers had to "take the watches as they came," the profit was but , as a dozen watches in a gross had broken glasses, or were otherwise damaged and unsaleable. The supply of these watches was not equal to the demand, for when a case of them was received, "it could have been sold twice over." street-seller told me that he had sold and even dozen of these watches on a day, and that once on a Saturday night, and early on Sunday morning, he had sold gross, or dozen. Such, however, was not the regular sale; a "good week" was a profit of | |
About years ago gilt watches of a very superior kind were sold in the streets in a different way. They were French made, and were at vended at each. Some were displayed in case-boxes, fitted up with divisions, in which were placed the watches with the guard-chains, about -quarters of a yard long, coiled round them. There were also or keys, in the form of a pistol. The others were hung from a small pole, sometimes a dozen, and sometimes , being so suspended, and they had a good glittering appearance in a bright light; this street fashion still continues. The street-sellers, however, are anxious not to expose these watches too much, as they are easily injured by the weather, and any stain or injury is irreparable. The shilling sale continued prosperously for about weeks, and then the wholesale price—owing, the streetsellers were told at the swag-shops, to "an opposition in the trade in Paris,"—was reduced to the dozen, and the retail street-price to each. When the trade was "at its best" there were men and women selling these watches, all May, June, and July, and each clearing from to (but rarely the latter sum) a week. Last "season" there were for the same period about half the number of sellers mentioned, averaging a profit of about a day each, or a week. The cry is—"Handsome present for Beautiful child's watch and chain, made of Peruvian metal, by working jewellers out of employ. Only for a handsome present." | |
The vendors of these watches are the regular | |
354 | street-sellers, some of them being tolerably good patterers. of these men, in the year of the street-sale of watches, appeared morning in an apron and sleeves, to which brass and copper filings were made to adhere, and he announced himself as an English working jeweller unemployed, offering his own manufactures for sale, "better finished and more solider nor the French." The man's sale was greatly increased. On the following day, however, other English working jewellers appeared in Leicestersquare and its approaches, each in besprinkled apron and sleeves, and each offering the productions of his own handicraft! The apron and sleeves were therefore soon abandoned. |
Among the best "pitches,"—for the watch-sellers are not itinerant, though they walk to and fro— are the Regent's-park, , the foot of London-bridge, and of Blackfriars-bridge, and at the several railway stations. | |
The principal purchasers, I was told by an intelligent patterer, who sometimes "turned his hand to the watches," were "fathers and mothers," he thought, "and them as wished to please such parties." | |
Calculating that persons now vend watches for weeks in the year, and—as they are per cent. cheaper than they were at the swag-shops—that each clears weekly, we find yearly expended in London streets in these toy watches. | |