Order book of a nineteenth-century Birmingham silversmith and engraver, containing 269 rubbings of engravings on silver, mostly of birds, with pencil designs and engravings.

The volume ('White & Pike's Diary 1880') is a folio, in green cloth gilt. Recently rebacked and renovated, with one leaf of advertisements under archival paper. A few leaves have had the slips laid down on them cut away or removed. Pages 1-20 and 77-93 carry advertisements, mostly for the Birmingham metal and jewellery trades. The 269 slips of rubbings, together with 37 slips with pencil drawings of designs and engravings, are mostly laid down on the rectos of twenty-five leaves of the diary proper. One loose leaf carries rubbings of designs around monogram initials. Initial rubbings in purple wax; the majority in charcoal. By far the greater part of the rubbings are of birds - in flight, at rest, in floral surroundings. Many of the rubbings feature patterned borders and surrounds. The slips were clearly assembled for business purposes: an illustrated leaf from the catalogue of the jewellers Fattorini & Sons has been laid down, with 'Keep this' at the foot of one page. The order book contains entries relating to business with the Birmingham metal and jewellery trade: customers include the tool makers Cashmore & Morton, and the clock and watch makers Grimmett & Co and Phillips & Pearce. Sample entries: '[20 May 1880] Mr Abbott | Silver 16[s] 10[d] for back plate' and 'Phillips & Pearce | Silver for Brooch stamping [£]17 0[d] 0[d] | Earrings to clip [£]5 14[s]. A clue to the provenance of the item may be Loosely inserted is a photocopy (8vo, 4 pp) of a patent for the 'production of decorative plaques or panels for various purposes', registered in 1930 by Tiptaft Limited of Birmingham and Ethel Maud Morgan of Smethwick. The firm of 'J. W. Tiptaft & Son Ltd' was founded in 1882 by James Walter Tiptaft, who went into partnership with his son Norman in 1909. The firm was sold to Blanckensee in the late 1930s.