The maker of many sets of instruments and individual items is not who it seems at first sight from the name that appears on the case or instrument. In this section I look at some of the evidence that supports this statement, from catalogues and books, from actual instruments, and from discussions with former instrument makers.
The Scholastic Trading Co., Bristol - one of the sets by an unknown maker that can be found with the stamp of several retailers and which appeared in Halden's 1902 catalogue.
Riefler round pattern compasses of the same design as the Halden New Model and Thornton’s “Kinwest” (1916 Thornton catalogue).
On page 6 they are quite specific “Cases of Drawing Instruments Best English Manufacture” and they continue to head following pages “English Made Instruments”. All the instruments in these pages are to what is frequently called the “Old English Pattern” made by most of the British manufacturers at that time.
In page 15 there are two Faber’s Patent Pens listed. In pages 17 and 18 they clearly distinguish between English and Swiss made Napier compasses. Page 20 lists and illustrates “Amsler Planimeters” which would almost certainly have been made in Switzerland by Amsler.
Turning to the 1910 catalogue (ref B) there is yet more evidence on pages 4 and 5 which list and illustrate “English Pattern Drawing Instruments Best Foreign Manufacture”. In spite of the title description the pens are clearly different in details such as the handle finial, the ferrule and the opening nib joint from those made in Britain. The No 786a Rotating spring bow illustrated was probably German. I would like to know the source of the other instruments illustrated.
Ref C has over 130 pages. The catalogue starts on page 5 with “Loose Drawing Instruments; Half Sets of Compasses – English Make”. Page 15, however, exhibits a significant change to the wording which becomes “.....English Make, &c.” Pens 3459 and 3471½ are clearly Faber patent ones although not identified as such.
Page 17 describes a “Special Line in Loose Drawing Instruments. English Make. German Silver.......by far the cheapest for the make and quality offered” More specifically it also states “Instruments are made in my own factory on the premises.” At this time Thornton quoted that his best instruments were made in Electrum. Both Electrum and German Silver are copper/nickel/zinc alloys having a similar appearance but I do not know how their chemical compositions differed; possibly German Silver contained more copper and less nickel and hence was significantly cheaper. One composition for German Silver that I have seen is 60% Cu, 20% Ni, 20% Zn, whilst I have also seen a composition for a good Nickel Silver as 46% Cu, 34% Ni, 20% Zn. Was the best quality Electrum similar to this?
A patent set by James Parkes of Birmingham, of the same type as described in Thornton's book, ref D.
Richter Rotating (or drop bow) compass of the same type as illustrated in the Thornton 1895 catalogue and in Thornton's book
A Halden Premier set - made by Thornton?
The next example is a set of instruments in a wallet case on which is printed the name of J H Steward Ltd of London. This is a full set of instruments, which includes large and small compasses, dividers, three spring bows and two ruling pens. These exactly match the corresponding Thornton Techset instruments, this time including the pens and even the wallet case which has the same covering materials and the characteristic Thornton green felt interior. Again the characteristic vee at the end of the slot in the peg of the inserts is present.
Both these sets of instruments were almost certainly made by Thornton with the exception of the Halden Premier pens and probably the Halden case.
Halden did make their own range of flat pattern instruments but these were not of the same, high quality as the Thornton Minerva ones.
Returning to catalogue evidence, B J Hall & Co describe in their 1930 catalogue their “Simplex” range of instruments which are clearly identical to Thornton’s Minerva range. The illustrations and introductory text are also the same as in Thornton’s 1940 catalogue. The Simplex series includes a ‘Universal Roller Beam Compass (Gill’s Patent No. 155970/19)’. On my page of Thornton instruments I have illustrated and described one of these, ex UK government, which is entitled on the lid of its case ‘Compasses Beam 26” T.P. (Thornton Pattern)’. However the instrument is not marked Thornton anywhere but is just stamped with the patent number. It is also brass rather than the nickel silver described in the Hall catalogue. Hall certainly give the impression in their catalogue that they made the Simplex series and also their “Abbey” series, which are the spitting image of Thornton’s ‘Techset’ ones. They also list ‘Jaywess’ instruments, this time using the same name as Thornton. Did more than one manufacturer make the same instruments, possibly under licence?
The J H Steward set which was almost certainly made by Thornton as it is identical to one in their Techset range.
The set of Rowney spring bows that I concluded were made my W F Stanley.
My third example is a cased set of three traditional pattern spring bows. The case has “G. Rowney & Co London” in gold letters on its underside. Rowney were makers of artists’ materials but would, almost certainly, have bought in drawing instruments for sale by them. In this case the solution lies in the very unusual style of the knurling on the handles which matches that of a set illustrated in Michael Scott-Scott’s book on drawing instruments published by Shire Publications. He states that the instruments were made by Stanley and I would therefore conclude that the “Rowney” set were also.
W H Harling also made a distinctive range of instruments available in two qualities, the standard “British Empire” ones and their “Technical Series” and these are described in their 1930 catalogue. Some of these instruments continued to be made into the 1960s. The catalogues of C F Casella & Co (1930s), A West & Partners (1930/5) and Instruments Ltd (Canada) (1947) also show these instruments, in many cases using the same illustrations with the name blanked out or their name substituted. Casella describes these as “the new patterns approved by the Inter-Departmental Committee appointed to consider the design of British drawing instruments” so they would appear to be a standard design made by more than one company; however Harling seem to have been a major manufacturer and supplied many sets to the UK government. A G Thornton also supplied “British Empire” series instruments to the government. The ones sold by Instruments Ltd were made in Britain but the catalogue does not state who by.