Cooke, Sons & Co.

Cooke, Sons & Co. was a carpet manufacturer established by William Peabody Cooke in Liversedge, Yorkshire in 1795. The company had spinning mills in Liversedge, a matting factory in Hadleigh, Suffolk, and a warehouse in London. Carpets were entirely produced on handlooms until 1850.

In 1938 Cooke, Sons & Co. was taken over by another carpet manufacturer called Blackwood, Morton & Sons, who trade today as BMK Carpets Ltd.

Cooke, Sons & Co. Advertising Envelope.
Used with 2d embossed 17 September 1891 to Gothenberg

by Mark Matlach

David Evans & Co.

David Evans & Co. was a textile printing business established in Crayford, south-east London in 1843. David Evans was already an established silk merchant and Crayford was seen as an ideal site for textile work as it was within easy reach of the main markets of central London and the Thames ports of north Kent, and there was abundant clean water from the River Cray.

The company specialized in hand block printing right up to the 1980s. This was an incredibly slow, labor-intensive process that combined the skills of an artist, toolmaker and carpenter. The process started with a block maker who transferred a design to a block of wood. A separate block was needed for each distinct color and many blocks were needed to build up the pattern. The blockcutter would then carve out the design which would be transferred to a metal plate. Once the plates were made, a printer applied ink to the relief and hand pressed it against a cloth. David Evans & Co. had a massive library of such plates – something like 70,000 different blocks with about 11,000 different designs. The company produced good quality printed silks, and gained an international reputation for its Real Ancient Madder Silks, which were made by a special process involving secret recipes, initially including the use of dung, and herds of cattle were kept for the purpose.

David Evans & Co. advanced into screen and automated printing in the 1970s. Quality was always paramount and clients included, among others, Liberty department store, Christian Dior and Elton John. The company closed down in 2002.

Examples of printed silks by David Evans & Co.

by Mark Matlach

Christy & Co.

Christy & Co. is a hat manufacturing company which makes men's and women's hats as well as bespoke ranges for the military and for police forces.

The company was established by Miller Christy and his partner Joseph Storrs in 1773. The first hat shop was at 5 Whitehart Court in London, moving later to Gracechurch Street, which remained the London address of the business until 1954. Following the retirement of the two original partners in 1804, Miller Christy's three sons, Thomas, William and John, took control of the firm. Under the stewardship of the brothers Christy & Co. expanded. Factories were established in Bermonsey, Frampton Cotterell and Wray. The company also brought in hats from other hat manufacturers located in various parts of the country, in particular T. & J. Worsley & Co. in Stockport. In 1826 Christy's acquired Worsley & Co. outright and expanded the factory in Stockport. At its height, the Stockport factory alone employed 3000 local people and was always managed by direct descendants of the company's founder. By 1843 Christy & Co. was the largest hat and cap manufacturer in the world. In 1887 the business was incorporated as a limited company, however the years following the First World War saw the company enter a steady decline. Today, Christy's is a much smaller operation and is based in Oxfordshire.  

Christys are known to have used at least three different overprints :

• Recd. For / Christy & Co. (style h2b) recorded on : 1d Inland Revenue (small)
• RECEIVED FOR // CHRISTY & CO. LD. (style v2a) recorded on : sg 357
• CHRISTY // & CO. LTD. (style h2d) recorded on : sg 506

It seems probable that the overprint on this 1d Inland Revenue stamp pictured belongs to the same company, although I cannot confirm this.
          

Advertisement 1954

by Mark Matlach

Aspro Limited

The outbreak of the First World War caused the supply of aspirin from Germany to Australia to be cut off. In 1915 the Australian government announced an initiative to develop an alternative to aspirin, stating that German patents and trademarks would be suspended and then granted to any home-based manufacturer who would meet the required standards of purity.

response to the government scheme, a Melbourne pharmacist called George Nicholas, and an industrialist called Henry Woolf, developed a new product which was initially branded as Nicholas-Aspirin. George soon realised that the name Aspirin could be reclaimed by German company Bayer after the war. In 1917 he adopted and registered the name Aspro for his product. Production of Aspro tablets began in Australia in 1917 and in 1923 manufacturing was also commenced in New Zealand.

In 1927, Aspro Limited was established in the UK to produce and market Aspro tablets in the UK and around Europe. A factory was set up in Slough, Berkshire and the first UK Aspro tablets came off the production line in August 1927. By November UK sales were ahead of Australia. The 1927 winter flu epidemic in the UK increased demand by an extra 12 million tablets a week.

A new factory was built in Slough in 1958 and Aspro Ltd. diversified into the production of vitamin supplements, veterinary products and pharmaceuticals. In 1969 the company was acquired by Nicholas Australia Ltd which became Nicholas International in 1970. In 1981 the business was merged with Kiwi International Ltd.

by Mark Matlach

Robert Varvill

The Varvill family were a major player in the plane and tool making industry of 19th century England. The company was established in 1793 in York by Michael Varvill as a woodworking tools business. By 1829 the firm was known as M. Varvill & Sons. In 1840 Michael's son, Summers Varvill, took control of the family business and moved it to the Ebor Works, North Street, York. Summers died in 1862 and his brother Robert Varvill took over the running of the firm. At this time the company was described as a manufacturer of planes, files, joiner's tools, gimblets and a wholesale dealer in ironmongery. The tools made by the Varvills are still for sale today, albeit in antique rather than joinery shops.

Varvill 1/4" grooving moulding plane

by Mark Matlach

R. E. Davies Landport Drapery Bazaar

Robert Edmund Davies was a well-known and distinguished businessman in Portsmouth who was three times mayor of the city in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1870 Davies established a department store at Commercial Road, Portsmouth which he named the Landport Drapery Bazaar. The business grew to become one of the largest department stores in the city.

In 1908 the Landport Drapery Bazaar was destroyed by fire and subsequently rebuilt. In 1941 the department store took a direct hit from a German bomb leaving a gigantic crater on the site of the store. The Landport Drapery Bazaar was back in business in the 1950s as part of a newly built shopping centre. In 1965 the store was acquired by the United Drapery Group. In 1982 the company name was changed to Allders, and in 2005 the store was taken over by Debenhams.

Landport Drapery Bazaar

by Mark Matlach

Rose Kia-Ora

In 1867 a Scotsman by the name of Lauchlan Rose patented the method used to preserve citrus juice without alcohol. A year later he established L. Rose & Co. with a factory in Leith to produce lime juice. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 required all ships of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy to provide a daily lime ration to sailors to prevent scurvy. Rose's lime juice became almost ubiquitous, hence the term limey for British sailors. Rose established a presence on the Caribbean island of Dominica and became the main buyer of limes and lime products from across the island. The company contributed to the most prosperous period that the island experienced at the height of the green lime trade from 1903 to the mid-1920s and was one of the most successful agricultural companies ever to be based in Dominica.

In 1917 Rose launched a concentrated fruit soft drink called Kia-Ora. The name was taken from Kia ora a Maori language greeting which means literally “be well/healthy” and was first used for a lemon squash by Arthur Gasquoine in Australia. L. Rose & Co. began the production of  marmalade in the 1930s. The company continued to grow until it was taken over by Schweppes in 1957. The Kia-Ora brand became popular in the 1970s and 80s in the UK. It was widely available in cinemas where it was sold in rectangular plastic cartons that were supplied with a drinking straw.

Today, Rose's lime juice cordial and Kia-Ora are manufactured and distributed by Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd.

by Mark Matlach