 1898 logo | |
| Industry | Metalworking |
|---|---|
| Founded | Manchester, 1824 [1] |
| Founder | James Perry |
| Defunct | 1961 [2] |
| Fate | Acquired by British Pens, Ltd. [3] |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Dip pens, Bicycle chains |
Perry & Co., Ltd was a dip pens manufacturer of England. The company was the largest in its country of origin, producing a huge range of models. Perry & Co. also manufactured bicycle chains and accessories. [4]
James Perry, still a schoolmaster and being dissatisfied with the quality of existing pens, began making steel pens by hand. The firm was founded in Manchester as James Perry and Co. in 1824, but later moved to London, where they made and sold pens and pen-holders, pencils, elastic bands and ink, and dealt in stationers' supplies. [1] From 1829 all of Perry's pens were made by Josiah Mason, which was considered by the time as the finest pens manufacturer. [2] The excellence of their products swiftly raised them to the forefront of the new industry, exporting pens all over the world. By 1876 when the firm became a Limited Company, they equalled Esterbrook as being the largest manufacturers of pen nibs in the world.
Sometime after 1847 James Perry and Co. became "Perry and Co." as the name was used in an 1866 advert. [1] In 1876 Josiah Mason's steel-pen firm came together with Wiley & Son, pen and pencil case makers, and James Perry & Co under the title of “Perry & Co Ltd”, acquiring its Birmingham base at Lancaster Street Works. The firm also began the production of steel chains and accessories for bicycles. [1]
The same year the public company was registered on 28 January, to take over the businesses of Josiah Mason and A. Sommerville and Co, manufacturers of pens of Birmingham. [1]
By the late 1890s the company was having financial problems and were bought by James William Bayliss, part owner of the Bayliss-Thomas car making company. [1]
By 1914 Perry & Co specialized in steel pens and pen holders, cycle chains, free wheels, hubs, bells and cycle accessories, stationers' sundries, gold pens, solitaires, studs, sleeve links, tobacconists' and drapers' sundries and had 2,000 employees. [5]
In 1945 the company transferred its chain making and cycle coaster hub business to a subsidiary, Perry Chain Co Ltd. The pen business was continued by Perry and Co (Pens division) Ltd, while Perry and Co (Holdings) Ltd became the main parent company, with financial control of the whole Perry group. [1]
In 1920, when Hinks Wells & Co and William Mitchell came together at the Pedigree Works in Birmingham, founded a new company called "British Pens", which added Cumberland Pencils in 1921. After World War II staff from the London Jewel Company joined them and they began to produce ballpoint pens.
In 1961 British Pens acquired the pen businesses of Perry & Co and other manufacturers like John Mitchell and Joseph Gillott's. As part of the Twinlock Group its name was changed to "Cumberland Graphics" in 1975. Byron Head, the Managing Director of William Mitchell (sinkers) and British Pens bought the two companies from Twinlock in 1982. The company still makes pens in the West Midlands. [6]
Perry & Co. produced a large variety of models for different purposes, most of them designed to produce fine lines (such as Nº 25 or 341, which is still easy to find in stores of Argentina). Other models were also popular by their names, like the "Queen Mary" [7] or the "Quill Pen" (Nº 230-231-232) [8] Perry & Co. also produced different giant-sized versions of its N°2301 Indent Pen model. Those were 5" long (see thumbnail photo).
The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited (BSA) was a major British industrial combine, a group of businesses manufacturing military and sporting firearms; bicycles; motorcycles; cars; buses and bodies; steel; iron castings; hand, power, and machine tools; coal cleaning and handling plants; sintered metals; and hard chrome process.
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity which had to be periodically recharged by dipping the tip of the pen into an inkwell. Today, such pens find only a small number of specialized uses, such as in illustration and calligraphy. Reed pens, quill pens and dip pens, which were used for writing, have been replaced by ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, fountain pens and felt or ceramic tip pens. Ruling pens, which were used for technical drawing and cartography, have been replaced by technical pens such as the Rapidograph. All of these modern pens contain internal ink reservoirs, such that they do not need to be dipped in ink while writing.
A dip pen or nib pen or pen nib usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and plastic; some pens are made entirely of glass.
Sir Josiah Mason was an English industrialist, engaged in pen manufacture and other trades, and a philanthropist. He founded Mason Science College in 1875, which later became the University of Birmingham.
George Richards Elkington was a manufacturer from Birmingham, England. He patented the first commercial electroplating process.
Velocette is a line of motorcycles made by Veloce Ltd, in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. One of several motorcycle manufacturers in Birmingham, Velocette was a small, family-owned firm, selling almost as many hand-built motorcycles during its lifetime, as the mass-produced machines of the giant BSA and Norton concerns. Renowned for the quality of its products, the company was "always in the picture" in international motorcycle racing, from the mid-1920s through the 1950s, culminating in two World Championship titles and its legendary and still-unbeaten 24 hours at over 100 mph (161 km/h) record. Veloce, while small, was a great technical innovator and many of its patented designs are commonplace on motorcycles today, including the positive-stop foot shift and swinging arm rear suspension with hydraulic dampers. The business suffered a gradual commercial decline during the late 1960s, eventually closing in February 1971.
Excelsior, based in Coventry, was a British bicycle, motorcycle and car maker. They were Britain’s first motorcycle manufacturer, starting production of their own ‘motor-bicycle’ in 1896. Initially they had premises at Lower Ford Street, Coventry, and 287-295 Stoney Stanton Road, Hillfields, Coventry, Warwickshire before moving to Kings Road, Tyseley, Birmingham in 1921.
A writing implement or writing instrument is an object used to produce writing. Writing consists of different figures, lines, and or forms. Most of these items can be also used for other functions such as painting, drawing and technical drawing, but writing instruments generally have the ordinary requirement to create a smooth, controllable line.
The Birmingham pen trade evolved in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and its surrounding area in the 19th century; for many years, the city was the centre of the world's pen trade, with most dip pens being produced there. At the height of the Jewellery Quarter's operations, there were about 100 pen factories, which employed around 8,000 skilled craftspeople.
Halfords Group PLC is the UK's largest retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. Through Halfords Autocentre, they provide vehicle servicing, MOT, maintenance and repairs in the United Kingdom.
Zebra Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manufacturer of writing instruments, established in 1914 by Tokumatsu Ishikawa.
A nib is the part of a quill, dip pen, fountain pen, ball point or stylus which comes into contact with the writing surface in order to deposit ink. Different types of nibs vary in their purpose, shape and size, as well as the material from which they are made.
The Perry was a British car made by the Perry Motor Company based in Tyseley, Birmingham who made cars between 1913 and 1916.
Dunelt Motorcycles was a British motorcycle and bicycle manufacturer. Based in Sheffield, the business was founded by two steel makers and engineers, Dunford and Elliott of Sheffield in 1919. Their first motorcycle was an innovative supercharged 499 cc two-stroke single. The company specialised in good quality sidecars from 1926 and a Dunelt motorcycle was first to cross the desert from Cairo to Siwa and back in 1924. Dunelt also enjoyed racing success and won the Double Twelve Hour World Record at Brooklands with a Model K in 1928. Dunelt moved into commercial three-wheeled cars but these were not a success. A Dunelt moped was exhibited at the Earls Court show in 1956 but the company diversified into other areas of engineering in 1957.
The Esterbrook Pen Company is a former American manufacturing company founded by English immigrant Richard Esterbrook and based in Camden, New Jersey. It was the largest pen manufacturer in the United States, having reached a record of producing 216,000,000 pens a year. The company produced dip pens, then concentrating on fountain pens until it was acquired by Venus Pencils in 1967, ceasing activities in 1971.
Speedball is a US manufacturing company of stationery and art products, based in Statesville, North Carolina. The company was originally established as the "C. Howard Hunt Pen Company" in 1899, to manufacture dip pens.
Leonardt Ltd. is an English manufacturing company that specializes in finishing of metal components, manufacturing products such as corners for stationery such as leathergoods, photograph albums, menu covers, pattern and carpet books, binders and portfolios.
Joseph Gillott's was an English manufacturing company based in Birmingham founded by Joseph Gillott in 1827 that produced high-quality dip pens. In 1961, Joseph Gillott's was taken over by British Pens Ltd., becoming a brand of it. Pen lines with the Gillott's name were manufactured in the British Pens factory of West Midlands, and currently commercialised by William Mitchell Ltd, one of the brands of the corporation.
BSA Company Limited is a motorcycle manufacturer which purchased rights to the BSA name from Birmingham Small Arms Company's successor, Dennis Poore's Manganese Bronze Holdings, upon the liquidation of Norton Villiers Triumph in 1978.
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