I thought I would start to post up my findings about the history of J. R. Gaunt & Son here, rather than to the other two recent threads on the
J. R. Gaunt’s History Timeline or the
J. R. Gaunt & Son Advertisements, if only to try and keep things in chronological order as I put them up.
I must say that I am particularly grateful to Forum member btns, not only for all his interesting postings on the subject of Gaunts so far, but also for sharing information on his sources with me. Specifically I owe him my thanks for telling me about three interesting small articles that have appeared in
Button Lines: The Journals of the British Button Society, which I wouldn’t have otherwise known about. I believe two of the articles (both published in two parts) are from the 1970s - one by Captain Nigel Waite on ‘J. R. Gaunt and Son Limited’, touching on the Firm’s history, the kind of items made and the actual manufacturing processes; whilst the second is by Lynette Carey about ‘The J. R. Gaunt Collection’ at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which also briefly talks about the Company history, though is mainly about her work in cataloguing the buttons in this collection. The third
Button Lines article is perhaps the most pertinent here, and is actually by John Richard Gaunt (grandson of James Richard Gaunt, the J. R. Gaunt in the Company’s name) - it is entitled ‘J. R. Gaunt & Son Limited: A Brief History by John R. Gaunt’, and is from 1994.
Where applicable I’ll make reference to these
Button Lines articles, as well as to relevant trade directories and census returns. I do stress, these will only be preliminary findings, and there will still be much work to be done to establish a full picture of Gaunt’s badge making activities, let alone when certain Gaunt marks were used, etc. Nevertheless, hopefully this will give other Forum members involved in researching this particular firm something to work on – more to come over the next few days then!
Regards
Martin