Made in Birmingham
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MADE IN BIRMINGHAM Birmingham's Industrial History Website
SWAN BRAND BULPITT & SONS
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Bulpitt & Sons,46, Northwood StreetBirmingham (later 153-161 & 175, Camden St., Winson Green, Birmingham.Bulpitt and Sons were originally brassfounders but the started to specialise by making lamps and copper kettles.Later they registered the trademark Swan Brand.. Swan were well known for their range of kettles and teasets, especially Cromalin Ware. Carlton (Cromalin), Empire (Cromalin) Westbury, later used for the Goblin D25 Queen Anne models Wikka Ware, an engraved basket weave pattern Willow, an engraved willow pattern Swan also produced tea ware to mark the Festival of Britain and Coronation. Swan also made kitchenware, the most common being the Jellette moulds. Swan were one of the first manufactures to experiment with sheathed electric elements that were placed inside the kettles Swan also patented a device, an electric connector that would exit the kettle if it suffered an overheat. Swan also used the space inside the kettle handle to hold a spare fuse. In the early 1970's Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR), owned by Dr Mc Donald, an electronics company famous for their auto changer record players, took over Bulpitt & Son and the Judge company, a pots and pans manufacturer. The group was then known as BSR Housewares, with Swan Housewares becoming a subsidiary. At the same time BSR bought Goblin, another electronics firm famous for its vacuum cleaner and Teasmade, an automatic tea maker. This meant that for a time Swan were the only company making automatic teamakers (Teasmade) in the UK. However for a short period it appears that some Teasmades had the Swan badge but the tea pot and kettle were marked Goblin.The Goblin 860 was the first Teasmade to be re-badged and sold by Swan. Both the Teasmade & Swan trademarks were acquired in 1988 by the French company Moulinex. In 2001 Moulinex went bankrupt and were eventually bought by Tefal UK. The Swan side of the business was bought by Littlewoods, the mail order store. And so, yet again, a Birmingham company is passed around like a parcel but this time it is a happy ending with the brand still alive! If you worked at Swan, or have any memories or history of the company, please contact us at the email address on the home page. Swan Brand ware is regularly offered for sale on Ebay BULPITTS (SWAN BRAND) LIMITEDCompany No. 00600494
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