Welsh Model Copper Smelting Furnace Foundry Works Diorama Folk Art Victorian

Unique and all original ,painted, carved wood diorama depicting a copper smelting works, Swansea South Wales, circa 1850.

Housed in a pillared architectural glazed case,

gaffer, workers and apprentices lined up on either side dressed in spotted uniforms, arm and ankle protectors, holding tools of the trade, ladles, paddles, shovel etc.

Brick furnace at one end, a line of ingot moulds in front.

A poignant piece of Welsh folk art celebrating Wales's ground-braking industrial past.

Very good condition, original throughout, some peeling of the green painted floor and dust inside the glass otherwise all good and sound.

12,1/2" x 4,1/8" x 10,1/2" or 317mm x 105mm x 266mm, weight 1520 grams.

This was bought by me from a long deceased Swansea antiques dealer and has been in my personal collection for the past 30 + years.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi....

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During the 19th century, the lower Swansea valley grew to be one of the most important industrial centres in Britain. With access to coal to drive machinery and ports for exports,

towns like Swansea were ideally placed for metal smelting. Lead, zinc, steel and tinplate were all worked and smelted along the banks of the Tawe with successful smelting works established in Swansea, Neath and Llanelli. Swansea's copper industry – with the giant Hafod Works of Vivian and Son at the vanguard – had grown to be the largest in the world by 1842, providing work for thousands both in copper and the supporting coal and shipping industries. Growing demand for copper encouraged prospecting overseas and by the mid-19th century new ores were being brought to South Wales for smelting, from as far away as Chile, Cuba and South Australia. Swansea was now at the centre of the global copper trade, gaining international renown as ‘Copperopolis’. By 1851, Wales was not only the centre of the copper industry but had become the world’s first industrialised nation.

Innovation and technical invention were integral to the success of Swansea’s metal industries. ‘The Welsh method of smelting copper set a new international standard for copper production

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andrew.nethercott@btopenworld.com

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