Coin Scale c1842

These were made by Thomas Herbert when at 39 Cannon Street, St George in the East, between 1842 -1849.

 

Thomas was the founder of the Herbert branch of the business so this is a very important part of the collection.

 

We know a lot about the history of Herberts in the 19th century through the memories of the 81 year-old George Herbert, son of year-old George Herbert in 1923.  George was the son of the founder Thomas Herbert (1811-1876) and Sarah Brinkhurst (1809-1901).  The family came from London's East End and that is where the Herbert business first flourished.  George tells us that Thomas was employed as an errand boy in Pallett's scale makers business in Leadenhall Street.  Thomas Pallet had died in 1813, and the business was then run by his widow Elizabeth and her sons.  Thomas dearly wanted to be a scale maker, but for some reason the Pallett's refused to let him become an apprentice.  After Elizabeth's death the firm went downhill, so Thomas saw a good business opportunity and left around 1842 to set up his own business working from a shed in his father-in-law Benjamin Brinkhurst's back garden.

 

His first customer was a butcher and as his reputation grew, so did the one-man business.  Moving out of the shed in Cannon Street, Thomas obtained a shop at 47 St. George Street and took on two of Pallett's former employees.  Thomas Herbert's business did very well producing small coin scales used to check the accuracy of gold coins which were commonly being clipped by fraudsters. 

 

Formal description:

 

Scale with steel beam with swan neck terminals in a plain oak box 5½ in x 2¾ in.