 | Brummagem: Encyclopedia II - Brummagem - 19th century
Brummagem - 19th century
The pejorative use of the word was later applied to "Brummagem ware", cheap mass-produced goods such as costume jewellery manufactured in the city - not, it should be said, exclusively. Birmingham at the time was one of the world's largest industrial cities, producing a huge variety of quality goods. The significant button industry gave rise to the term 'Brummagem button': the 1836 The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens mentions it as a term for counterfeit silver coins, but Samuel Sidney's 1851 Rides on Railways refers to it as "an old-fashioned nickname for a Birmingham workman".
By the late 19th century, "Brummagem" had become a generalised term for anything cheap and shoddy disguised as something better. It was used figuratively in this context to refer to moral fakery: for instance, the Times leader, January 29th 1838, reported Sir Robert Peel's slur on an opponent: "[he] knew the sort of Brummagem stuff he had to deal with, treated the pledge and him who made it with utter indifference".
"Carts were passing to and fro; groups of Indians squatting on their haunches were chattering together, and displaying to one another the flaring red and yellow handkerchiefs, the scarlet blankets, and muskets of the most worthless Brummagem make, for which they had been exchanging their bits of gold, while their squaws looked on with the most perfect indifference." (J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, California, 1849 [1]).
"The equipages were generally much more gorgeous than at a later period, when democracy invaded the parks, and introduced what may be termed a "brummagem society," with shabby-genteel carriages and servants." (Rees Howell Gronow, The Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, 1862 [2]).
"The furs, fossil ivory, sheepskins and brick tea brought by them after voyages often reaching a year and eighteen months, come, strictly enough, under the head of raw products. Still, it is the best they can bring; which cannot be said of what Europe offers in exchange — articles mostly of the class and quality succinctly described as "Brummagem." (Description of a trade fair, Lippincott's Magazine, 1876 [3]).
However, as shown by James Dobbs' song I can't find Brummagem (see below), it remained in use as a geographical name for the city.
The Birmingham politican Joseph Chamberlain was nicknamed 'Brummagem Joe' (affectionately or satirically depending on the speaker). See, for instance, The Times, Aug 06, 1895: "'Chamberlain and his crew' dominated the city ... Mr Geard thought it was advisable to have a candidate against 'Brummagem Joe'".
Other related archives1680s, 17th century, 1849, 1862, 1876, 18th century, 1917, 20th century, 21st century, Andrew Symonds, Birmingham, Brum, Brummie, Carl Chinn, Charles Dickens, Civil War, Domesday Book, Europe, Exclusion Bill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, House of Commons, Ireland, Joseph Chamberlain, Krazy Kat, London, MBE, Matthew Boulton, Middle Ages, Milan, Protestant, Punch magazine, Robert Peel, The Beautiful and Damned, The Guardian, The Pickwick Papers, The Times, TheFreeDictionary.com, Times, Tory, UK, University of Birmingham, West Midlands, anvils, brassiere, bridles, buckles, buttons, canes, costume jewellery, counterfeited, dinkum, files, groats, hammers, iron, music hall, saddles, smiths, snuff-boxes, steel, swords
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "19th century", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
