Hi Bill
Sorry I haven’t responded before now – work and such! Anyhow, I’m afraid I’m not sure quite what you mean when you say that by 1985 Gaunt “was only selling and not making”, are you taking about the company in Canada, or J. R. Gaunt & Son back in England? I’ve not personally come across anything about Gaunts over here not manufacturing things by the 1980s, and understood that when the business was sold to Firmin & Sons in 1991 it was done so as a going concern. In a circular letter sent out at the time of the sale to Firmins it does talk about Gaunts having “been located for the last two years in the Icknield Street factory”, which sounds to me like they were still making things in Birmingham at least! A copy of this circular letter also used to be on Mr Dunnigan’s site, but again this is now no longer available, though, thankfully, Forum member ‘btns’ has posted up a full transcription
here.
As to Gaunt in Montreal, in 1994 John Richard Gaunt (grandson of James Richard Gaunt, the J. R. Gaunt in the Company’s name, and former Chairman of the Firm) wrote an article for
Button Lines: The Journals of the British Button Society entitled ‘J. R. Gaunt & Son Limited: A Brief History by John R. Gaunt’, which I have previously referenced on the thread about ‘
J. R. Gaunt & Son Company History’. Significant Mr Gaunt said that Charles Frederick Gaunt opened “offices in New York and Montreal” going on to say “The dates of these events is not known but he was in Montreal in May 1914”; I have a note that J. R. Gaunt & Son (Canada) Limited were actually incorporated on 7 July 1908. He then has this to say about what happened to these “offices” following Charles’ death in 1939:
So to recap, in 1985 J. R. Gaunt & Son (albeit by then part of The Birmingham Mint) believed that the company in Montreal had been just a selling outlet and
not a factory, and writing in 1994, John Richard Gaunt, ex-Chairman of the Company before it was sold to The Mint, also thought it, along with the business in New York, were just “offices”. Accordingly, as far as I can see, there’s nothing here to suggest that badges were made at the Beaver Hall Hill address, and I have to say that I would consider the Company as it was in 1985 and Mr Gaunt to be both pretty authoritative sources on this issue.
Maybe there was badge manufacture by Gaunt in Canada, and if so perhaps this was somewhere else? I did try and look up Beaver Hall Hill on the internet, but all I found was a Côte du Beaver Hall. I don’t know if this is the same street, but this doesn’t look like a particularly industrial area to me. I wonder if historic mapping of Montreal might help establish exactly where the Beaver Hall Hill address was, and what kind of building was there? I personally think that we should be cautious in assuming that Gaunts actually made badges in Canada, especially as the sources I’ve quoted have the company in Montreal as being just a selling outlet/office.
Best regards
Martin