Quote:
Originally Posted by altcar73
Gents,
Can someone please tell me why there is an assumption that J. R. Gaunt moved from London to Birmingham in the 1970's ? I suspect that it is because maker marks show either "Gaunt London or "Gaunt Birmingham". The J.R. Gaunt factory has always been in Birmingham. The "London" back-mark relates to the location of their registered office. Badges with the back-mark "Firmin London" again don't relate to the place of manufacture but the location of the registered office. In fact Firmin ceased to have a London office in the 1980's/90's but still sometimes use the "London" back-mark. Please see attached a copy of the Gaunt letter head from my files dated 25th Feb. 1937.
Dave.
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Hi Dave,
This is from my book, which covers pages 30-31 and records the history of J.R.Gaunt:
"...During the late 1960s J. R. Gaunt & Son Limited also had other offices in London at 1-8 Bateman Buildings, Soho Square (PO Box 4AD), London, W1 later becoming W1A 4AD. Company notepaper from the time had been amended by reprinting from ‘J. R. GAUNT & SON LIMITED’ to ‘J. R. GAUNT (LONDON) LIMITED’, as discovered on a letter from the company to the Ministry of Defence dated 20th November 1969. By 1st January 1970 new dedicated company notepaper with the London name was available. (7) This gives rise to the idea that the company was, at least in part, known by this name at the time. At some stage the company moved from Warwick Street to the Soho Square address but the actual date of the move is unknown. The head office remained at Warstone Parade Works, Birmingham 18. (8) In June 1973 Mr John R. Gaunt sold his company to the Birmingham Mint Group also known as The Mint, Birmingham, Ltd. for £600,000 and all administration is believed to have been transferred from the London offices to Birmingham..."
The numbers shown in brackets represent the document references. Get hold of a copy of the book and you will see where I obtained my information from.
If you look at the last line you should see why the 1970's date is often used. However, be warned, I use the word "...believed..." as I could not find actual 100% documented proof of the date of the transfer in the 1970's although obviously it occurred.
Going back to the 1966-67 date for the Gaunt B'Ham mark - I never found out why this mark was created only that it was as per my previous post. I was taken to task on the level of my intelligence (so, what's new) for not knowing the reason for the change by an interesting 'chap' who now owns the Gaunt name. When I pushed him to divulge he refused.
Hopefully the two posts that I have written here are of interest in relation to the B'Ham mark and the 1970's date - if anyone needs more info on Gaunt and the other 21 companies who actually made or had an interest in the manufacture of A/A cap badges you know where to find it.
Regards
Chris