Badges

Birmingham has a long and distinguished history of metalworking and by the end of the Victorian period had developed an international reputation for metal production, making everything from boxes, trinkets and cheap jewellery (known collectively as toys) to guns, pins, pens and buttons.

Thomas Fattorini Ltd, a well-respected company, established a Birmingham manufacturing base in 1919 and can now be found on Regent Street in the Jewellery Quarter.  They remain renowned designers and manufacturers of bespoke items, including many badges and medals. https://fattorini.co.uk/

The Midwives Act of 1902 required the Central Midwives Board to maintain an employment register of trained midwives and the term ‘midwife’ could now only be used by those individuals certified under the Act.  For details of this Act and its early implementation in Birmingham please see Maggie Brownlow’s blogs from April 2020 https://borninbirmingham.home.blog/blog-feed/

Examples of such badges, recognising the standing of this newly recognised profession and produced by Thomas Fattorini Ltd, can be seen at the beginning of this item and these images are reproduced with the kind permission of Sally Bosleys Badge Shop https://www.sallybosleysbadgeshop.com/

Alison Smith – BiB Project Researcher