one that probably had not changed much for well over a hundred years. By the 1980s and 1990s these were being marketed as ‘Indoor Fireworks’ in their own right; for Halloween there was the ‘Midnight’ range featuring the ‘Giant Cobra’, ‘Serpents of Doom’, ‘Wizard’s Wands’, ‘Bat’s Breath’, ‘Swamp Fires’, ‘Midnight Flares’, ‘Witches Brew’ and ‘Magic Dust’. However, back in Victorian and Edwardian times, and even into the reign of George V, these little amusements were usually referred to as ‘Parlour’ fireworks (with, as ever, super graphics). Novelties, decorations and sweets Allied to their cracker business, Tom Smith & Co. also stocked and sold numerous decorative and novelty festive items. The selection included: Christmas decorations, candle ornaments, hanging grape bunches, napkin bouquets, holly wreaths, glazed vine leaves, magic flowers, dessert and fish papers, flags and banners, French satin boxes, Christmas figures, birds and lanterns. For the discerning shopkeeper, there were cottages, windmills, trains, clocks, pies and watermills, all displayed under glass domes. Similarly, for window displays, confectioners could purchase automatons in the form of dancing sailors, ‘Paddy’s Obstinate Pig’, ‘Darwinian Cooks’ and mechanical tea drinkers. The years 1895-96 saw the company offering ‘Window Attractions – Musical & Mechanical Of The Finest French Manufacture’, and very fine they were, with a Parisian laundress, Japanese tea drinker, singing cook, seated figure with baton and music and Chinaman being among the most visually impressive. One could also obtain clockwork pictures, with or without music and costing between 17 and 25 76
shillings. Musical versions would run for about one hour when fully wound. Subject matter included children with a jack-in-the-box, a woman with a cat, a man with a rat, children with a dog, a dogs’ concert, a ballet dancer with chicks and a dancing lesson. To cap it all, you could acquire the strangely named ‘Tom Smith’s Relics from Pompeii’, a range of imitation artefacts that the catalogue describes as ‘the most remarkable novelties ever produced, consisting of daggers, padlocks, caskets etc. made to imitate old iron
A superb mechanical counter or window display novelty, dated 1981-82, in the guise of a Japanese lady – just one small example of the many, now highly collectible novelties offered by Tom Smith’s over the years.