University of Virginia Library

OF THE STREET-SELLERS OF CHILDREN'S GILT
WATCHES.

These articles were first introduced into general
street sale about 10 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 1d., and the wholesale
price was 8s. the gross. They were sold at eight
of the swag-shops, all "English and foreign," or
"English and German" establishments. From
the price it would appear that the profit was 4d. a dozen, but as the street-sellers had to "take the
watches as they came," the profit was but 3d., 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." One
street-seller told me that he had sold 15 and
even 16 dozen of these watches on a day, and
that once on a Saturday night, and early on
Sunday morning, he had sold 2 gross, or 24
dozen. Such, however, was not the regular sale;
a "good week" was a profit of 15s.

About six years ago gilt watches of a very
superior kind were sold in the streets in a dif-
ferent way. They were French made, and were
at first vended at 1s. each. Some were displayed
in case-boxes, fitted up with divisions, in which
were placed the watches with the guard-chains,
about three-quarters of a yard long, coiled round
them. There were also two or three keys, one in
the form of a pistol. The others were hung from
a small pole, sometimes a dozen, and sometimes
two, being 30 suspended, and they had a good
glittering appearance in a bright light; this street
fashion still continues. The street-sellers, how-
ever, 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 six weeks,
and then the wholesale price — owing, the street-
sellers were told at the swag-shops, to "an oppo-
sition in the trade in Paris," — was reduced to
4s. 6d. the dozen, and the retail street-price to
6d. each. When the trade was "at its best"
there were thirty men and twenty women selling
these watches, all May, June, and July, and each
clearing from 12s. to 20s. (but rarely the latter
sum) a week. Last "season" there were for the
same period about half the number of sellers men-
tioned, averaging a profit of about 15d. a day
each, or 9s. a week. The cry is — "Handsome
present for 6d. Beautiful child's watch and
chain, made of Peruvian metal, by working
jewellers out of employ. Only 6d. for a hand-
some present."

The vendors of these watches are the regular

[Description: 915EAF. Page 354.]

street-sellers, some of them being tolerably good
patterers. One of these men, in the second year
of the street-sale of watches, appeared one morn-
ing in an apron and sleeves, to which brass and
copper filings were made to adhere, and he an-
nounced 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, four other Eng-
lish working jewellers appeared in Leicester-
square and its approaches, each in besprinkled
apron and sleeves, and each offering the produc-
tions 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, Leicester-square, the foot
of London-bridge, and of Blackfriars-bridge, and
at the several railway stations.

The principal purchasers, I was told by an in-
telligent patterer, who sometimes "turned his
hand to the watches," were "fathers and mo-
thers," he thought, "and them as wished to
please such parties."

Calculating that twenty-five persons now vend
watches for twelve weeks in the year, and — as
they are 10 per cent. cheaper than they were at
the swag-shops — that each clears 8s. weekly, we
find 360l. yearly expended in London streets in
these toy watches.