 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).
A dip pen is a writing instrument used to apply ink to paper. It 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.
Alldays & Onions was an English engineering business and an early automobile manufacturer based at Great Western Works and Matchless Works, Small Heath, Birmingham. It manufactured cars from 1898 to 1918. The cars were sold under the Alldays & Onions name. Alldays also built an early British built tractor, the Alldays General Purpose Tractor. After the First World War the cars were sold under the name Enfield Alldays. Car production seems to have ceased in the 1920s but the manufacture of many other items continued. The company became part of the Mitchell Cotts Group.
Sir Richard Trevithick Tangye was a British manufacturer of engines and other heavy equipment.
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 a UK retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. Through Halfords Autocentre, they provide vehicle servicing, MOT, maintenance and repairs in the United Kingdom.
Prismacolor is a brand of professional visual arts supplies originated in 1938 by the Eagle Pencil Company, and now currently manufactured by Newell Brands. Prismacolor products include, colored and graphite pencils, soft pastels, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and cases. In past years, Prismacolor also produced watercolor paintings and charcoals.
Accles & Pollock is a British tube manipulation company based in Oldbury, West Midlands.
Reynolds Technology is a manufacturer of tubing for bicycle frames and other bicycle components based in Birmingham, England established in 1898.
The Garrard & Blumfield or Blumfield & Garrard was an English electric car manufacturer from 1894 to 1896. The company is presumed to have been founded by C. R. Garrard and T. W. Blumfield.
The Perry was a British car made by the Perry Motor Company based in Tyseley, Birmingham who made cars between 1913 and 1916.
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.
N. Hingley & Sons Ltd was a firm that originated in the Black Country region of England. It was founded by Noah Hingley (1796–1877) who started making chain near the village of Cradley. The firm moved to Netherton around 1852, where large scale chain and anchor manufacturing works were set up on the Dudley No.2 canal. One of the most famous products of the firm was the anchor of the RMS Titanic which on completion in 1911 was drawn through the streets of Netherton on a wagon drawn by 20 shire horses.
Dewrance & Co. Ltd was a manufacturer of engine and boiler accessories, such as pumps and gauges.
Joseph Salmon was a British bookseller turned postcard publisher and printer, and the founder of J Salmon Ltd in 1880, the UK's oldest postcard and calendar publisher.
Charles Henry Pugh was founder of a British bicycle manufacturer. Charles Henry Pugh was the chairman and managing director of the Whitworth Cycle Co., he was also the chairman of CH. Pugh Ltd. Pugh designed a machine press and specialized steel for making seamless bicycle rims. By 1894 Pugh was the leader of Rudge-Whitworth: a company which became Great Britain’s leading bicycles and motorcycle manufacturer.
The Acme Motor Co is a defunct manufacturer of motorcycles that operated from premises in Earlsdon, Coventry. The company started manufacturing in 1902. It was taken over by Rex motorcycles sometime before 1920. In 1922 the name of the company was changed to Coventry Acme Motor Co, later that year the company was merged with Rex motorcycles to form Rex-Acme.
Founded in 1838, George Kent Ltd was initially a manufacturer of household gadgets, then a manufacturer of munitions during World War One, and became the largest British manufacturer of instruments for industrial control systems, prior to its acquisition by Brown Boveri in 1974.
Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon, known as Gilkes, is an English hydropower engineering company based in Kendal, Cumbria, founded in 1853.
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