November 1, 2015, 7:34 am
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James Colmer Ltd. was a large department store in Bath. The store's origins can be traced to 1829 when Caleb Hornby opened a draper's shop in Union Street. The shop grew to become the largest department store in Bath. Branch stores were also established in Bristol and Taunton. All the James Colmer stores were later taken over by the department store chain Owen Owen.
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November 1, 2015, 7:40 am
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Swiss Bank Verein (SBV) was a large integrated financial company located in Switzerland. Prior to its merger, the bank was the third largest in Switzerland with over 300 billion CHF of assets and 11.7 billion CHF of equity. In 1998 SBV merged with Union Bank of Switzerland to form UBS, the largest bank in Europe and the second largest bank in the world. Today, what was SBV forms the core of many of UBS's businesses, particularly UBS Investment Bank.
Swiss Bank Verein traces its history to 1854. In that year, six private banking firms in Basel, Switzerland, pooled their resources to form Bankverein, a consortium that acted as an underwriting syndicate for its member banks. The name was later changed to Schweizerischer Bankverein, with the English name of the bank changed to Swiss Bank Corporation in 1917. The bank grew steadily and prospered in the following years until its merger with Union Bank of Switzerland in 1998.
S.B.V. handstamped overprints are found mainly on Queen Victoria and Edward VII Foreign Bills though I have come across one example on SG341.
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November 1, 2015, 7:50 am
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George Harding set up business as a tinplate manufacturer in 1835 in White Street, Southwark, London, under the sign “The Original Little Dust Pan.” In the 1870s George Harding's stock was housed in part of the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark. Much ofthe old prison was demolished at this time, though parts of the keeper's house, kitchen, suttling house and 8 dwellings were incorporated into the premises of George Harding & Sons. Marshalsea had housed a variety of prisoners over the previous years including pirates and smugglers, though it became known in particular, for its incarceration of the poorest of London's debtors. Over half the population of England's prisons in the 18thcentury were in jail because of debt. The prison became known around the world in the 19thcentury through the writing of Charles Dickens, whose father was sent there in 1824, when Charles was 12, for a debt to a baker. Forced as a result to leave school and work in a factory, Dickens based several of his characters on his experience, most notably Amy Dorrit, whose father is in Marshalsea for debts so complex that no one can fathom how to get him out.
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By the late 19thcentury George Harding & Sons were well as established as hardware merchants and manufacturers.The company had japan and tinplate works in Long Lane, and offices and a warehouse at 207 Borough High Street and showrooms at 103 Wardour Street. The business was in operation until at least 1955.
Marshalsea prison in 1773
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November 1, 2015, 7:53 am
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Hankey, Bannister & Co. was a wine and spirits company established by Beaumont Hankey and Hugh Bannister in 1757 at Johns Street in London's West End. The business quickly developed a reputation as suppliers of the finest wines and spirits to London Society.
In 1785 the company's wine cellars were moved to Adelphi Arches under Adelphi Terrace, London's first neo-classical building designed by the Adams brothers. The cellars remained there until 1936, at which point the Arches were demolished.
Hankey, Bannister & Co. began absorbing a number of other West End firms, acting as an umbrella organisation for various small wine merchants, supplying the Royal Household and many exclusive clubs. In the 1890s Hanky, Bannister & Co. entered into whisky blending. The company would become renowned for its blended scotch whisky which became the exclusive scotch whisky for the British Armed and Diplomatic Forces and was supplied to Winston Churchill when he was Prime Minister.
In 1915 Hankey, Bannister & Co. moved to 32 Sackville Street where the firm remained until Saccone & Speed purchased the business in 1932. Today, the Hankey Bannister whisky brand is produced by Inver House Distillers and owned by International Beverage Holdings Ltd.
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November 9, 2015, 7:25 am
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J. W. French & Co. Ltd. were flour millers in Ware, Hertfordshire. The company built the Frenlite Flour Mill at Viaduct Road, Ware, in 1897. The mill was used to supply flour to J. Lyons & Co. for almost a century, and fremlite self-raising flour was produced well into the 1960s.
In 1969 J. W. French & Co. Ltd. became a fully owned subsidiary of J. Lyons & Co. The company ceased trading in 1983 and the mill in Ware was converted into housing in 1988.
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November 9, 2015, 7:30 am
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Dri-ped Limited was a subsidiary company formed by William Walker & Sons in 1914.William Walker & Sons was a manufacturer of leather belting and other leather accessories. The company was founded in 1823 by William Walker in the Lancashire town of Bolton. The original tannery was in King Street and the output was chiefly clog and shoe leather. Walker saw great potential in the manufacture of belting, for driving the new machinery in cotton mills and engineering works which were springing up throughout Lancashire. Operations were transferred to Ridgway Gates Tannery in 1828. Rose Hill Tannery was opened in 1850 and grew to become one of the largest and most efficient tanneries in the UK and William Walker & Sons Ltd. became one of Bolton's major success stories. The company made high-grade leathers for a wide range of products including shoes, handbags, belts, hats and briefcases.
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Owing to the popularity of Walker's “Dri-ped” leather, which was advertised as “the super leather for soles made from the finest hides obtainable”, Walkers decided to form a separate company to manufacture the product . In 1919 the former Jackson's corn mill in Weston Street, Great Lever, was purchased to manufacture Dri-ped.
In c.1970 William Walker & Sons Ltd. was acquired by another leather merchant called The Barrow Hepburn Group plc. The Rose Hill Tannery was closed down in 1978 and in 2008 it was demolished.
Advertisement 1925
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November 9, 2015, 7:33 am
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H. Brooks & Co. were makers of keyboards for pianos and organs. The company was established by Henry Brooks in 1810 at 31 Lyme Street in London's Camden Town, which at this time was the centre of piano and harmonium building.
Another 19thcentury piano parts maker was the Herrburger company, which was established in Paris in 1844 originally under the mame of Schwander. In 1920 H. Brooks & Co. and Herrburger merged to form Herrburger Brooks. The combined company became a world leader in quality piano actions. From 1920 it was the sole manufacturer for Great Britain of Schwander actions. The company also made Herrburger, Brooks, Langer and other piano actions. Herrburger Brooks also manufactured keys and hammers for grand and upright pianos and organs.
The Paris branch of Herrburger Brooks closed in 1953 and production was transferred to a factory in Long Eaton, Derbyshire. The company was now the largest manufacturer of piano actions in Europe. In 1965 the business was acquired by Kimball International Inc. In 1996 Kimball sold Herrburger Brooks to Harmony Pianos of Hong Kong, but two years later the company went into liquidation.
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November 9, 2015, 7:37 am
In 1879, James Ritty, a saloon owner in Dayton, Ohio, patented the first mechanical cash register. The purpose of the invention was to stop dishonest employees from helping themselves to extra cash from the cash drawer when no one was looking. In 1884 John H. Patterson bought the patent for the cash register and formed the National Cash Register Company.
The company grew rapidly and in 1886 expanded abroad. The British office was established at 95 The Strand in London under the name National Cash Register Till Company. In the same year, the first cash registers in Britain were used at the refreshment stands at the International Exhibition in Liverpool. In 1895 the company became styled the National Cash Register Co. Ltd. with headquarters at 337 The Strand.
John Patterson died in 1922 and by that year his company had sold more than 2 million cash registers. During the First World War, the firm manufactured shell fuses and aircraft instrumentation, and during the Second World War it built aero-engines, bomb sights and code-breaking machines. The National Cash Register Co. became a major post-war force in developing new computing and communications technology. In 1953 the company created a specialised electronics division and in 1956 introduced the Class 29 Post-Tronic, a bank machine using magnetic tape technology. The firm manufactured its first transistor-board computer in 1957 called the NCR 304.
In 1974 the company commercialised the first bar code scanners and changed its name to the NCR Corporation. In 1982 the first NCR Tower super micro computer system was launched, establishing NCR as a pioneer in bringing industry standard and open system architecture to the computer market. In 1991 NCR was acquired by AT&T. A restructuring of AT&T in 1996 led to NCR's re-establishment as a separate company. Today NCR is a hardware, software and electronics company. Its main products are self-service kiosks, automated teller machines, cheque processing systems and barcode scanners.
James Ritty's first cash register which he called Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier.
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November 18, 2015, 6:07 am
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Whitehead Brothers Ltd. is a teaand coffee merchant formed in 1858 in Manchester. The company, now called Whiteheads Ltd., is a tea wholesaler and bespoke coffee blender, currently located at a purpose built factory in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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November 18, 2015, 6:10 am
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Provident Mutual was established in 1840 as the Provident Clerks' Mutual Benefit Association, along with a sister company called the Provident Clerks' Benevolent Fund. The two new companies were often known together as the Provident Clerks' Mutual Benefit Association and Benevolent Fund. The company was formed “for the purpose of affording to clerks and others the means of making a provision for themselves in old age, for their families at their decease, and an endowment for their children.”
The association issued its first policy in 1841 and in 1846 set up the first UK group life assurance scheme by which Magniac, Jardine & Co. undertook to pay the premiums for providing life assurance to their employees as a benefit of employment. In 1848 the company changed its name to the Provident Clerks' Mutual Life Assurance Association.
By 1859 the company was managing the staff life assurance scheme for the Post Office and, in 1860, began operating staff life assurance schemes with leading railway companies, starting with the Great Western Railways. The company pioneered a system to take weekly or monthly premiums from salaries to allow all employees of participating companies to afford life cover.
In 1903 the company name was changed to the Provident Clerks'& General Mutual Life Assurance Association and in 1917 the name was changed again to the Provident Mutual Life Assurance Association.
In 1995 the company merged with the General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corporation Ltd. to become Provident Mutual Life Assurance Ltd. The business was dissolved in 2003.
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November 18, 2015, 6:12 am
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The company was established as a distributor of nuts, seeds and dried fruits, in London in 1864, by George Gray and G. M. Barrow. In 1887 Samuel Barrow and G. H. Ballard were taken into partnership and the firm became titled Barrow, Lane & Ballard. The company supplied vast quantities of dried fruits and nuts to all the principal distributing houses throughout the UK, Europe and the United States.
Today, the company operates as a subsidiary of Loudwater Management Ltd., and offers cashews, brazil nuts, walnut kernels, almonds, pecan nuts and peanuts, as well as sunflower seeds for the bird feed market in Europe.
The company used a handstamped security overprint on the 1d lilac. The stamp pictured also has a BL/&B perfin.
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November 18, 2015, 6:14 am
Shepherd Neame Ltd. is one of the oldest breweries in Britain. It operates the Faversham Brewery in Kent, which has been brewing continuously over the same artesian well since 1698. The company brews the equivalent of 50 million pints of beer a year and exports three million. Its beer brands include “Bishop's Finger”, “Spitfire” and “Master Brew”. The company controls around 370 pubs in the south east of England, where it also operates hotels.
Samuel Shepherd was a brewer and eminent citizen of Faversham who had served as the town's mayor. He took ownership of the brewery in 1742. In 1864 Percy Beale Neame became a partner and the company became styled Shepherd Neame & Co. The company's property in the 1870s included 115 pubs and 10 railway carriages for delivering beer. In 1877 Neame became the sole proprieter of the firm. He died in 1913 leaving control of the company with his oldest son Henry, and the business was incorporated as Shepherd Neame Limited.
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November 18, 2015, 6:21 am
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John Lewis is an employee-owned UK retail company currently operating 31 department stores and over 300 Waitrose supermarkets.
John Lewis opened a drapery shop at 132 Oxford Street, London, in 1864. Lewis sold woollen cloth, silk and haberdashery, buying good quality merchansise and selling it for a modest profit. The business was successful and Lewis gradually expanded by renting neighbouring properties on Oxford Street and moving into ladies' and childrens' wear and furniture.
In 1906 Lewis bought a controlling interest in the Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, London. The business proved to be unprofitable and in desperation Lewis appointed his son Spedan as chairman of Peter Jones in 1914. Spedan introduced a system of commission for each department, paying sales staff amounts based on turnover. He made improvements in staff conditions including granting a third weeks paid holiday each year. Business began to prosper. Spedan Lewis's radical idea was that the profits generated by business should not be paid solely to shareholders. Shareholders should receive a reasonable but limited return, and the staff should be the recipient of the excess. In 1920 Spedan started distributing Peter Jones preference shares to the staff, who were now called “Partners”.
John Lewis died in 1928 at the age of 92. Spedan took sole control of the Oxford Street business in addition to Peter Jones. In 1929 Spedan Lewis signed a deed of settlement which transferred shares In John Lewis & Co. and Peter Jones to trustees. The profits of the combined business would be distributed to its employees, either in cash or as fixed-interest stock in the new company called John Lewis Partnership Limited.
In 1933 the John Lewis Partnership began buying up retail businesses including the acquisition of Waitrose Ltd. in 1937 and Selfridge Provincial Stores Ltd. in 1940. In 1950 Spedan Lewis executed a second deed of settlement, which passed the ownership of the John Lewis Partnership to trustees to hold for the benefit of those who worked in the business.
As far as I am aware, the John Lewis overprint appears only on the Queen Elizabeth 2d Wilding stamps.
Spedan Lewis (1885 - 1963)
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November 23, 2015, 6:41 am
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The Union Glue & Gelatine Co. Ltd. was based at the Cransley Works in Clerkenwell, London in the 1950s, and produced the Coronet and Corolastbrand of abrasive, as well as casien glues, and dry cement.
The company's overprint is particularly scarce and so far has only been noted on SG465 shown above.
Advertisement 1951
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November 23, 2015, 6:46 am
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Sparrow, Hardwick & Co. was a textiles manufacturing company established by John Sparrow at 10 Major Street, Manchester in the mid 19thcentury. In 1899 the company built a large baroque style warehouse and showroom at 107 Piccadilly, Manchester. Under its Sparwick brand, the company produced such items as towels, tea cloths, cotton blankets, cotton sheets, curtain nets and pillow cases. Sparrow, Hardwick & Co. traded until at least the 1970s. Today, the warehouse building functions as a hotel.
107 Piccadilly, Manchester
Advertisement 1947
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November 23, 2015, 6:52 am
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T. Collinson & Sons were wholesale tea and coffee dealers and caterers. The company was established by Thomas Collinson in Halifax in 1835. The company's first store in Halifax was called the Golden Canister and sold black and green teas, coffees, refined sugars, spices and hops. Thomas Collinson retired in 1876 and his sons Joseph and Edward took over the running of the business. The company was doing well at this time and had established a number of cafés in Yorkshire and Lancashire and in Port Erin on the Isle of Man. During the Second World War, Collinsons Café on the Isle of Man played a role in the Enemy Alien Camp scheme on the island as the female and child detainees were fed from there. It appears that T. Collinson & Sons Ltd. ceased trading in 1970. The site of the company's warehouse and offices in Halifax is now occupied by the Collinson Building of the Lloyds Banking Group.
Collinsons Café in Blackpool in 1925
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November 23, 2015, 6:55 am
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In 1884 Alfred Hirst opened a jewellery and watchmaker's shop at Union Street, Oldham. Alfred's bothers, Fred and Samuel, soon joined him in the business which became styled Hirst Brothers. The company traded in watches, alarm clocks, jewellery, leather, glasses and optical equipment. Hirst Brothers expanded rapidly, with branches established in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Glasgow. In 1898 the company was incorporated as Hirst Brothers & Co. Ltd.
In 1912 Alfred Hirst saw one of his greatest ambitions realised with the introduction of the Limittrademark on his range of watches, a move which heralded the start of a new era in the watchmaking industry. The early Limitwatches carried a movement from the Waldenburg factory in Switzerland, which were shipped to the Oldham headquarters for assembly into British made Dennisoncases.
During the First World War Hirst Brothers focused on the production of precision mechanical instruments for the Royal Flying Corps. Following the end of the War, the company decided to enter watch manufacturing for themselves. A five-storey factory named Tame Side was established in Saddlesworth near Oldham, and clocks and watches that were made there became renowned for their quality. By the mid-1920s however, there were cheap clock imports from Germany and production turned to radio sets and gas meters.
In 1963 Time Products (UK) Ltd. acquired the Limitbrand of watches. Time Products continued operations in Oldham until 1999 when the business was moved to Leicester. In 2013 its watches were being made in the Far East using Japanese quartz movements.
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December 2, 2015, 4:59 am
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T. A. Lever was a large paper making and printing company in Manchester. Despite being a prominent company in the city at the end of the 19thcentury and early 20thcentury, I could find little information about the business. The company made cards, tea papers, flour bags, invoices, circulars, margerine paper, sugar bags, posters and general stationery.
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December 2, 2015, 5:02 am
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James Russell & Son owned the Derwent Brewery in Malton, North Yorkshire, from 1771. Another brewer in the area was William Wrangham Ltd who owned the Crystal Brewery from 1784. The two brewers went into partnership in 1897, becoming Russells & Wrangham. The newly formed brewing company also owned a flour mill and sold both ale and flour.
Russells & Wrangham were acquired by Melbourne Brewery of Leeds in 1958, and then sold on to J.W. Cameron in 1961. The Russell & Wrangham breweries were demolished in 1984 and the site is now occupied by a supermarket.
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December 2, 2015, 5:04 am
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Joseph Travers & Sons were wholesale grocers in London. The company has a very long history; its origins going back to the 17thcentury about the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666, at a shop under the sign of “The Cannon by London Stone.” In the early 18thcentury the company was being run by Joseph Smith and in 1728 business was being carried out at the sign of “The Sugar Loaf” in Cannon Street. The main products handled at this time were tea and sugar, later spices and dried fruit.
Joseph Smith was succeeded by his son William who was head of the firm for many years. In 1743 Benjamin Travers married William Smith's sister and their son was Joseph Travers. By 1779 Joseph Travers had become partner in the company which was now styled Smith, Nash, Kemble & Travers. In 1819 the company became Joseph Travers & Sons. The company owned and published The Produces Market Reviewwhich was one of the chief organs of the fiercely free-trader British commercial community. In 1899 J. Travers & Sons opened a branch in Singapore for the purpose of exporting spices and tinned pineapple. Other agencies were subsequently opened in Malaysia, Indonesia and later in Borneo. By around 1930 the company had developed to become a leading international trader in spices and tropical fruits. The company was still active in 1949 but but there seems to be no record of the business beyond this year.
J. Travers & Sons were one of the first companies to begin the overprinting of 1d fiscal stamps in the 1860s, though commercial overprints bearing the company's name are hard to find.
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James Colmer Ltd. was a large department store in Bath. The store's origins can be traced to 1829 when Caleb Hornby opened a draper's shop in Union Street. The shop grew to become the largest department store in Bath. Branch stores were also established in Bristol and Taunton. All the James Colmer stores were later taken over by the department store chain Owen Owen.
