[Probably one of the most amusing articles in Mr. Macculloch's
bulky _Dictionary of Commerce_ of 1,150 pages, is the
following account of the manufacture of the celebrated
Laurencekirk snuff-boxes. It is right, however, to explain,
that Mr. Macculloch only mentions these boxes here for the
purpose of giving the following details, not to be met with in
any other publication.]
These beautiful boxes were first manufactured at the village of
Laurencekirk, in Kincardineshire, about forty years since. The
original inventer was a cripple hardly possessed of the power of
locomotion. In place of curtains, his bed (rather a curious workshop)
was surrounded with benches and receptacles for tools, in the
contrivance and use of which he discovered the utmost ingenuity. The
inventer, instead of taking out a patent, confided his secret to a
joiner in the same village, who in a few years amassed a considerable
property; while the other died, as he had lived, in the greatest
poverty. The great difficulty of the manufacture lies in the formation
of the hinge, which in a genuine box is so delicately made as hardly
to be visible. Peculiar, or, as they are called, secret tools are
required in its formation; and though they must have been improved
by time and experience, the mystery attached to their preparation is
still so studiously kept up, that the workmen employed in one shop are
rigorously debarred from having any communication with those employed
in another.
About the beginning of this century, an ingenious individual belonging
to the village of Cumnock, in Ayrshire, of the name of Crawford,
having seen one of the Laurencekirk snuff-boxes, succeeded, after
various attempts, by the assistance of a watchmaker of the same
village, who made the tools, in producing a similar box; and by his
success, not only laid the foundation of his own fortune, but greatly
enriched his native parish and province. For awhile, the Laurencekirk
boxes were most in demand; but Mr. Crawford and his neighbours in
Cumnock not only copied the art, but so improved and perfected it,
that in a very few years, for every box made in the north there were,
probably, twenty made in the south. In 1826, the Cumnock trade was
divided amongst eight master manufacturers, who employed considerably
more than 100 persons. The demand at that time equalled the supply,
and it was calculated that the trade yielded from 7,000_l._ to
8,000_l._ annually,--a large product for a manufacture seemingly
so insignificant, and consisting almost exclusively of the wages of
labour. Plane is the wood in common use, and the cost of the wood in
an ordinary sized box does not exceed 1d.; the paints and varnish are
rated at 2d.; and though something is lost by selecting timber of
the finest colour, the whole expense of the raw material falls
considerably short of 1/2 per cent. on the return it yields!
Snuff-box, like pin making, admits of subdivision of labour; and
in all workshops of any size three classes of persons are
employed--painters, polishers, and joiners. At the period alluded to,
an industrious joiner earned from 30s. to 40s. weekly, a painter from
45s. to 3_l._, and a polisher considerably less than either. When
Mr. Crawford first commenced business he obtained almost any price
he chose to ask; and many instances occurred, in which ordinary sized
snuff-boxes sold at 2_l._ 12s. 6d., and ladies' work-boxes at 25_l_.
But as the trade increased, it became necessary to employ apprentices,
who first became journeymen and then masters; and such have been the
effects of improvement and competition, that articles such as are
specified above, may now be obtained at the respective prices of _six_
and _twenty-five shillings_. While the joiner's part of the art has
remained pretty stationary, that of the painter has been gradually
improving. By means of the _Pentagraph_, which is much employed, the
largest engravings are reduced to the size most convenient for the
workman, without injuring the prints in the slightest degree; and
hence a snuff-box manufacturer, like a Dunfermline weaver, can work to
order by exhibiting on wood his employer's coat of arms, or in short,
any object he may fancy within the range of the pictorial art. Some of
the painters display considerable talent, and as often as they choose
to put forth their strength, produce box-lids, which are really worthy
of being preserved as pictures. At first, nearly the whole subjects
chosen as ornaments, were taken from Burns's poems; and there can be
no doubt, that the "Cotter's Saturday Night," "Tam O'Shanter," "Willie
brewed a peck o' maut," &c. &c., have penetrated in this form into
every quarter of the habitable globe. Now, however, the artists of
Cumnock take a wider range; the studios of Wilkie, and other artists,
have been laid under contribution; landscapes are as often met with as
figures; and there is scarcely a celebrated scene in the country that
is not pictured forth more or less perfectly on the lid of a Cumnock
snuff-box. A few years ago, the art in question was much affected by
the long-continued depression of the weaving business; so much so,
that many left it for some other employment. And some of those who
emigrated, having made a good deal of money, instead of being cooped
up in a workshop, are now thriving proprietors in Upper Canada. But
after a brief interval the trade rallied; and though prices are low,
it is now more flourishing than ever. In Cumnock the number of hands
has increased considerably, and in Mauchline there is one workshop so
extensive that it may almost be compared to a cotton mill or factory.
In other quarters the trade is extending, such as Helensburgh near
Greenock, Catrine, Maxwelltown, Dumfries, &c. The principal markets
for the snuff-boxes are London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
At one time large lots of boxes were exported to South America, and
probably are so at present. Cumnock, in a word, in regard to its
staple manufacture, is in that palmy state so well described by a
modern writer:--"the condition most favourable to population is that
of a laborious, frugal people ministering to the demands of opulent
neighbours; because this situation, while it leaves them every
advantage of luxury, exempts them from the evils which accompany its
admission into a country. Of the different kinds of luxury, those are
the most innocent which afford employment to the greatest number of
artists and manufacturers; or those in which the price of the work
bears the greatest proportion to that of the raw material." Some very
wretched imitations of Cumnock boxes have been produced in different
parts of England; but they can deceive no one who ever saw a genuine
box. The hinge, as well as the finishing, is clumsy in the extreme.
[Mr. Macculloch acknowledges himself indebted for this
curious and instructive article to his esteemed friend "John
M'Diarmid, Esq. Editor of the _Dumfries Courier_, one of the
best provincial papers published in the empire."
By the way, what a colossal labour must have been the
preparation of the above Dictionary. How it reminds us of
the words of poor, patient Antony Wood: "What toyle hath been
taken, as no man thinketh, so no man believeth, but he that
hath made the trial." Yet it has often occurred to us that
the compiler, or editor, as he is complimentarily called, is
barely treated with proper respect in these days. What is
all knowledge but a continued accumulation and comparison of
facts, by "following the example of time?" Yet, all this is
not _original_; but we ask, in what does the intellectual
originality of the present day consist? does it add a spark to
the minds of men which they cannot find in the labours of past
ages? New books (we mean new _original_ works) are like dull,
pointless flints; the reader cannot scintillate, strike-fire,
or _steal_ from them; they are mere changes of words, often
at the sacrifice of sense to sound. A flashy novel
would, perhaps, secure the writer more celebrity than Mr.
Macculloch's _Dictionary_ will obtain for him, though his
reputation for talent and industry want not the false glory,
the common-place praise--the dullest outpourings--of a very
dull perception. Perhaps the whole series of the Waverley
Novels might have been written while this Dictionary was in
course of compilation.
We heartily wish that Mr. Macculloch's work may become as
popular as it deserves. It will then enjoy extensive fame. It
would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to acquaint the
reader with its mass of well-arranged materials; its laborious
abstracts, documents, and information upon every point
that bears upon the main subjects, commerce and commercial
navigation, practical, theoretical, and historical.
It deserves to be the library of every counting-house,
manufactory, and workshop in the empire; it is, indeed, a
delightful relief to mere figures, and we should think better
of the man whom we caught dipping into its pages by turns
with his book of accounts: for, with Addison, we have no noble
opinion of a man who is ever poring over his cash-book, and
deriving all his ideas of happiness from its balances.]
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