Elkington & Co.

Elkington & Co was a silverware manufacturer based in Birmingham, England.

The business was started by George Richards Elkington who had been apprenticed to his uncle’s silver plating business in 1815. On his uncle’s death he took over sole proprietorship but then took his cousin Henry Elkington into partnership.

Elkingtons became renowned for the introduction of commercial electroplating. They had recognised the potential of using electricity in the plating process and had already registered a number of patents when they came across Dr. John Wright, a Birmingham surgeon. He had discovered the use of a solution of cyanide of silver in potassium of cyanide for making electroplated silver and the Elkingtons bought and patented his process. They went on to patent further processes and improvements.

They opened a new electroplating manufacturing business in 1841 in Birmingham. They took Josiah Mason into partnership with them in 1842 and in addition to the large pieces they were already making, he encouraged them to produce a wider range of silver plated products, including affordable electroplated jewellery and cutlery. They operated as Elkington, Mason & Co until 1861 when Mason left and they became Elkington & Co until 1963. They were then taken over by British Silverware Ltd who, in 1971 went on to become a subsidiary of Delta Metal Co. Ltd.

During their time they became very successful and a prime producer of silver plating receiving a number of Royal Warrants. In 1884 they produced an electrotype (silver on copper core) copy of the Jerningham Wine Cooler which now resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.