the Art Deco glazed frame with roundels to the corners with an upstand to the top edge bearing the company name in parcel-gilt shadow lettering, the inner cabinet internally illuminated with lighting on all sides, the back-panel applied with a depiction of a fluttering Union Flag on a flag-pole forming a background to a giant carved wood-screw, and accompanied by the motto "Buy British", these depictions together with a geometric wide border, all painstakingly formed by pinning-out samples of the manufacturer's hardware: screws, hooks, bolts and other fastenings

This beautifully made exhibition display cabinet was created by one of the great Edwardian manufacturing companies: Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It was made as part of a series that would have dressed their stand at trade fairs and international exhibitions in the early decades of the 20^th Century. A couple of others are known to have survived, this is the largest of them; a photograph of this cabinet in 1941, or one made as its exact pair, can be found at the Winterbourne Museum in Birmingham that holds the archive for Guest Keen and Nettlefolds Ltd. Others can be seen in surviving photographs of their trade stands between the wars. No other examples though have this jolly reminder to “Buy British” – it’s a logo that puts this cabinet at a particular point in history.

The Great Depression that followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929 had created severe economic problems worldwide but for the British Empire, still recovering from the Great War, a new British  government was facing a particularly acute balance of payments problem. 

In the summer of 1931 the German banks were facing complete annihilation as the mark collapsed and the German economy with it. The European governments convened with America in order to alleviate Germany’s problems, pause its reparation payments, and try to prevent the financial contagion that was heading towards Sterling. Their measures had limited success. Sterling left the gold standard on the 21^st September but not before Prime Minister Ramsey Macdonald had dismissed his cabinet and submitted his resignation to the King.

A new government needed sweeping powers to halt the run on the pound and so “The National Government” was formed following a general election – it was a cross-party emergency government formed from the major parties. It persisted in different forms for the next fourteen years.

The cabinet resolved that, amongst other measures, a patriotic marketing drive would be launched in order to promote British products and manufacturing both at home and abroad. The Empire Marketing Board was engaged to oversee this nationalist economic policy and the term “Buy British” was coined. It was at this moment that the United Kingdom rowed back on its long-held strategy of Economic Internationalism – an approach to frictionless trade that had been maintained since 1815 and that had sustained its sprawling Empire for a century. The retreat garnered a step-down for Britain from a position as a leader of economic liberalism and with Germany, Japan, Italy and following the same path, the grim economic blanket was laid-out for what was to become another awful picnic: the second world war. The protectionist policies also paved the way for an end to the Empire.

At the time, large British manufacturers, each with diminishing order books, and an output that would be shored-up with a bit of protectionism, rallied around the “Buy British” cause and adopted the campaign’s motto. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds – as can be seen in this cabinet – was one of them. The Empire Marketing Board also managed to get Edward Prince of Wales on board (the future Edward VIII). He returned from a long holiday in Argentina and made an address to launch, amongst other things, a series of 26 “Buy British” posters to be successively displayed in public buildings and workplaces: 

 ‘It is now recognised that as a nation we have been lately buying from abroad more than we are able to pay for by our exports, and that we should concentrate in the first place on buying at home more of what we need – on using to the full what our own farms and our own manufacturing plants can provide.

‘There is a great determination among us this winter to lessen our unemployment – to bring back work to those thousands of homes that are seeking and waiting for it, and to restore the fortunes of our countryside.’

(In hindsight one may reflect on the suitability of the prince for this role to encourage the population to limit their spending to British goods when he had spent the previous ten years on extensive tours of South America, and was, within five years, to abdicate as King in order to move with his American wife to Paris and later the Bahamas.)

GKN plc. still exists. It was originally incorporated as Guest, Keen and Co Limited on 9th July 1900 – on the merger of the revered Dowlais Iron Company of South Wales with Arthur Keen’s Patent Nut and Bolt Company, a business which had been set up in 1856 in Smethwick. In 1902 the Company acquired Nettlefolds Limited, already one of the world’s leading manufacturers of screws and fasteners, a business which had also been set up at Smethwick in 1854. Following the acquisition of Nettlefolds the Company changed its name to Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited. It was one of the largest manufacturing businesses in the world, involved in every process from coal and ore extraction to iron and steel making and finally to finished products including the nuts, bolts, screws and fasteners for which it was then famous.

**The Lighting: the strip lighting that is concealed behind the mahogany frame on all four sides is probably original and is still working. It is difficult to access if a strip-bulb blows, now hard to source replacement bulbs and it is prone to getting warm in there after a time. When not illuminated, the original lighting rig does retain an authentic look. In order to maintain the look and by-pass the above problems LASSCO has installed a discrete LED flexible strip that offers a better, more even light, which works instead of but without removing the original lighting.