Dolan & co

[Martyn123]

Good evening

Trying to find into on Dolan & co Bond street Vauxhall London. Anybody have the dates that they operated?

Many thanks

Martyn

[Cribyn]

Dolan & Co operated from a Vauxhall, London address from 1888 onwards. Yet another contractor that just seems to have slipped away (at least as far as backmarks on military buttons are concerned) sometime around the First World War period as far as I am aware.

Prior to 1888 they were based in St Martins Lane, London. Operated under the name Dolan & Co from about 1835 but existed before that date under different trading names.

Roger

[Martyn123]

Many thanks Roger. It's on a Victorian Nottinghamshire constabulary button.

Regards

Martyn

[altcar73]

Martyn,

You may find that they were retailers as opposed to manufacturers.

Dave.

[Cribyn]

Originally Posted by altcar73

Martyn,

You may find that they were retailers as opposed to manufacturers.

Dave.

Quite right, they were clothing contractors, listed in directories as 'army tailors', 'army contractors' etc but obviously branched out to police uniform contractors if they had their name on the back of police buttons.

It was normal practice for the button manufacturer to put the name of the clothing retailer on the back of buttons if they were a good customer.

Roger

[Martyn123]

Many thanks Roger and Dave. I have found other buttons like that. My Indian navy button that I posted a while back has the clothing retailer name and address in India but a Prince of Wales plume which suggests Jennings if I remember correctly. Likewise some buttons have initials by the bases of the shank wire attachment. I don't know what they are but could be contractors initials.

Martyn