University of Virginia Library

OF THE "SWAG," CROCKERY, AND GLASS SHOPS.

In addition to the 150 general and particular
"swag-shops," or shops having a large collection of goods, of which I have spoken, there are
twenty establishments for the sale of crockery and
china, which I heard styled by persons in the
trade "swag-crocks," or "crock-shops." The prin-
ciple on which the trade is conducted in these
places is the same as that of the swag-shops,
inasmuch as the sales are wholesale, to street-
sellers, shop-keepers, and shippers, but rarely to
private individuals.

The crock swag-shops are to be found in the
streets neighbouring Spitalfields market, and in
and near to Liquorpond-street. As at the more
general or miscellaneous swag-shops, the crock-
swags make no display. In one of the most
extensive, indeed, two large windows are filled
with goods. Here are spirit-stands, with the
invariable three bottles (invariable in the cheap
trade), blue, green, or uncoloured; some lettered
"gin," "rum," "brandy," but most of them un-
labelled. Here, too, are cruet-stands, and "pot" or
spar figures under glass shades; and a number of
many-coloured flower-glasses, some of them pro-
fusely gilded; and small china vases; but the
glass wares greatly predominate. Although there
are glass and colour and gilding enough to make
"an imposing display," the display is nevertheless
anything but showy; the goods look dingy, and,
if I may so speak of such things, faded. Some of
the coloured glass seems to be losing its colour,
and few of the wares have the bright look of
newness.

The windows of these shops are, for the most
part, literally packed to a certain height, so as
almost to exclude the light, with pitchers, and
basins, and cups, and jugs, and the sundry smaller
articles of this multifarious trade, all undusted,
and seemingly uncared for. In one "large con-
cern" I saw a number of glass salt-cellars wrapped
severally in paper, which had changed from white
to a dusty brown, and which from age, and per-
haps damp, seemed about to fall to tatters.

The "interiors" of some of these warehouses
are very spacious. I saw one large and lofty
shop, into which two apartments and a yard had
been flung, the partitions having been taken down,
and the ceilings supported by pillars, in order to
"extend the premises." It was really a hall of
pots. On the floor were large crates, the tops
removed so that the goods might be examined,
packed, one with cups, another with saucers, a
third with basins, and packed as only a potter
could pack them. Intermixed with them were
piles of blue-and-white dishes and plates, and,
beside them, washing-pans, fitted one into another
like the old hats on a Jew's head. The pillars
had their festoons of crockery, being hung with
children's white and gold mugs "for a good boy,"
and with white metal-lidded and brown-bodied
mustard pots, as well as other minor articles.
The shelves were loaded with tea-services of many
shapes and hues, while the unoccupied space was
what sufficed to allow the warehousemen and the

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customers to thread the mazes of this labyrinth of
crockerywares. Of the glass goods there was little
display, as they are generally kept in cases and
other packages, to preserve their freshness of
appearance.

The crockery of the swag-shops is made in
Staffordshire; the glass principally in Lancashire.
At none of these establishments do they issue cir-
culars of prices, such as I have cited of the general
swag-shops. The articles are so very many, I was
told, that to specify all the sizes and prices "would
take a volume and a half." I give a statement,
however, of the prices of the goods most in de-
mand, on the occasions when the street vendors
sell them without barter, and the prices at which
they are purchased wholesale: Blue-edged plates
sold at 1d. each cost 1s. 8d. the dozen; this would
appear to entail a loss of 8d. on every dozen sold,
but in this article "30 is a dozen." Dishes are
bought at the "swag-crocks" in "nests," which
comprise 10 dishes, or 5 pairs, of different sizes.
These the street crockman sells, if possible, in
pairs, but he will sell them singly, for he can al-
ways make up the complement of his "nest" at
the warehouse. The prices run, chiefly according
to size, from 8d. to 1s. 6d. (sometimes 1s. 8d.) the
pair. "The 8d. a pair," said one street crock-
seller, "costs me 6d., not a farthing under, and
the 18d. a pair — it's very seldom we can `draw'
1s. 8d. — costs 1s. 2d. That's all, sir; and the
profit's so small, it makes us keen to swop. I'll
swop for old clothes, or dripping, or grease, or any-
thing. You see the profit, when you sells down-
right down, must be small, 'cause there's so many
pot-shops with prices marked on the plates and
other things. They can buy better than us some-
times, and they're hard to stand up against. If a
woman says to me — for I very seldom deal with
men — `Why, they're cheaper at D — 's, in Ox-
ford-street,' — I answers, `And worser. I'll tell
you what it is, ma'am. The cheapest place was in
two houses, painted all red, in the London-road.
But one fine morning them two houses fell, and
the pots was smashed as a matter of course. It
was a judgment on their bad pots.' But it's a fact,
sir, that these houses fell, about 7 or 8 years ago,
I think, and I've seen goods, with one or two of
'em broken, offered for sale when the place was
re-built, having been `rescued from the ruins; and
at less than half price.' Of course that was
gammon. I've cracked and broke a few plates,
myself, and sold them in the New Kent-road, and
in Walworth and Newington, at half price, from
the ruins, and at a very tidy profit." A stone
china tea-service, of 32 pieces — 12 cups, 12 saucers,
4 bread-and-butter plates, a tea-pot, a sugar-basin,
a slop-basin, and a cream-jug — is bought for 6s. 9d. while 9s. is asked for it, and sometimes obtained.
A "china set" costs, as the general price, 10s. 6d., and for it 14s. is asked.

The glass wares are so very rarely sold — being
the most attractive articles of barter — that I could
hardly get any street-seller to state his prices.
"Swop, sir," I was told repeatedly, "they all goes
in swop." The glass goods, however, which are
the most sold in the streets, I ascertained to be
cream-jugs, those vended at 6d. each, costing 4s. the dozen; and flower-glasses, the most frequent
price being 1s. a pair, the prime cost 7d.

I have estimated the sum turned over by the
general swag-shops at 3000l. each. From what
I can learn, the crock swag-shops, averaging the
whole, turn over a larger sum, for their profits are
smaller, ranging from 10 to 30 per cent., but
rarely 30. Calculating, then, that each of these
swag-shops turns over 4000l. yearly, we find
80,000l. expended, but this includes the sales to
shopkeepers and to shippers, as well as to street-
folk.