Charles Bayer & Co. Ltd.

Charles Bayer & Co. Ltd. was a corset manufacturing company, established in the late 19th century in Bath by a German immigrant named Charles Bayer.

In 1892 large four-story premises were established in the city. The red brick building was England's first corset factory, and the first factory in Bath to be built with an integrated electric light supply. The top floor of the building housed a workshop for making suspenders and the printing department. The cutting room was on the third floor; cloth was cut into pieces by a 22ft long cutting machine and girls on either side of the cutter used sewing machines to stick and join the pieces together. The second floor housed the finishing rooms where the products were pressed and ironed. The lower floors contained the stock room, general office and dispatch department – the corsets were shipped all over the world.

As the business grew, Bayer established additional corset factories in Bristol, Portsmouth, Gloucester and London. Bayer's advertisements boasted that his “superfine British corsets for British wearers” were made with the “daintiest French fabrics” and were “as easy fitting as a perfectly cut kid glove, with a complete absence of pressure upon the respiratory organs.”

Bayer's business was all but wiped out in the 1930s, but corset production continued under new owners who, in the 1970s, added lingerie to its lines. The large factory in Bath closed down in 1982, although the building still stands today.

Charles Bayer corset

by Mark Matlach

Bradford & Sons

William Bradford was a coal merchant in Pibsbury, Somerset from the 1780s. Bradford would transport coal mined in Wales by canal to Bridgwater. The coal would then be moved on by horse and cart to Yeovil and distributed to towns and villages in Dorset, Devon and Somerset.

In the 1850s the company begun by William Bradford became known as Bradford & Sons. As the railway system spread across Britain between 1850 and 1870, it became the new means of transport for heavy goods, and the company expanded along the railway lines with a number of branches and coal depots established.

At the beginning of the 20th century Bradford & Sons entered into the timber business and the building trade. The company continued to expand and following the Second World War it entered into the cereal seed trade and became the first company in the West Country to operate an aircraft crop spraying service.  

In 1963 Bradford & Sons Ltd. made a substantial investment in an animal feeds compounding mill and seed cleaning plant at Crewkerne, Somerset. This was subsequently expanded but, owing to the escalating administrative and technical requirements of the cereal trade, the company ceased processing its own seeds in 1972. In 1977 the company's animal feeds manufacturing business was sold to BOCMS and the rest of the company was restructured. Three separate trading companies were formed: Bradford's Agriculture Ltd., Bradford's Building Supplies Ltd., and Bradford's Coal Ltd. The latter two companies are still active today.

by Mark Matlach

J. H. Sankey & Son Ld.

J. H. Sankey & Son was a brick manufacuring company established in 1857 in Canning Town, London. The company made Sankey's Pure Silica fire bricks, Gannister cupola bricks, and arch blocks.

By the early 1900s the firm was described as a builder's merchant and manufacturer of cement, slates, bricks, tiles and fireclay goods. In the 1920s the company was advertising Sankey's Pyruma putty, which was used for sealing or joining fire bricks, and Tiluma cement, which was used for fixing tiles to fireplace surrounds.

J. H. Sankey traded until at least 1956.

A J. H. Sankey brick

by Mark Matlach

Elkington & Co.

Elkington & Co. was a silverware company which produced fine silverware and silver plate. The business was founded in Birmingham in 1815 by the uncle of George Richard Elkington. On his uncle's death in 1836, George became the sole proprietor and took in his brother Henry as  partner.

In 1838 Elkington & Co. discovered and patented a new method of electroplating one metal onto the surface of another. By 1840 production was already underway with silver electroplated wares. The greater durability of electroplate together with its affordability meant that it steadily ousted pure silverware, especially for more functional items such as tea and coffee services.

The company received financial backing from Josiah Mason in 1842 (the firm was renamed Elkington, Mason & Co. between 1842 and 1861) and began a period of huge success and rapid expansion. The company received awards at the great international exhibitions from the 1850s onwards for its excellence in artistic quality and fine design and held Royal Warrants from British Royalty including Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George VI. The firm supplied plated wares to the luxury dining sections on board the Titanic and other ships in the White Star Line fleet. By 1880 the company employed over 1000 workers at the Elkington Silver Electroplating Works in Birmingham, and had a further six works established elsewhere.

Elkington & Co. traded until 1963 when the business was taken over by British Silverware Ltd. In 1971 British Silverware Ltd. became a subsidiary of Delta Metal Co. Ltd. The original works in Birmingham became the Birmingham Science Museum in 1951, until its closure in 1997.

One of Elkington's most famous pieces was the electrotype copy of the Jerningham wine cooler in 1884. The original is in The Hermitage in St. Petersburg; the electrotype is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

by Mark Matlach

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