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Maurice Baum was born in Portsmouth on 1 April 1848, the son of David Baum (1811-1863) and Jochabed ‘Caby’ Barnett. David Baum had been born in Kornick in Posen (then part of Prussia, but now in Poland). The family was Jewish (information from Alan Ehrlich). According to local directories, David Baum was a second-hand clothes dealer in Portsmouth.
In 1872, Maurice Baum opened for business in Sheffield as a dealer in jewellery and fancy goods (including cutlery) in Pinstone Street. In the following year, he married Rachel R. Gluck (1854-1913), at the Synagogue, New Church Street, Sheffield. Their sons, Louis (1875-1955) and David (1876-1951), were born at No. 32 Pinstone Street. By 1880, Baum was based at Albert Works, a four-storied building in Norfolk Street. A silversmith (registering silver marks in 1884 and 1893), Baum produced plated goods, such as butter knives, desserts, and fish carvers. In the 1880s and 1890s , the company traded in table cutlery, and especially in electro-plate and meat carvers mounted in silver. It also introduced a white metal, ‘SILVERINE’. About 130 hands were said to be employed at Albert Works in the early 1890s. The firm also had an agency at Hatton Garden, London (The Century’s Progress, 1893).
Maurice Baum died in Sheldon Road, Nether Edge, on 29 May 1894, aged 46. He left £7,078. In 1900, John Albin, High Street, Manchester, bought Albert Works, to continue the firm under the old style. Maurice’s sons launched Baum Brothers and registered a silver mark in 1900 from an address in Eyre Street. Their trade mark was three stripes. After 1904, the firm operated from Nursery Street. In 1913, Baum Bros (Sheffield) Ltd was registered, with £3,000 capital and David Baum and W.A. Law as directors. The firm was liquidated in 1925, though David apparently continued to operate a business in Eyre Street until about 1939. He died on 9 May 1951, leaving £119.