FLORID SCRIPT

On an early component such as this, how would the lettering have been acheived? Some kind of pantograph engraver or a stamp? ...or even hand engraved?

Ed.

Often die-cast.

Neil

To John Stevenson, I have tried to contact you via the forum personal messaging but I don't know if this got through as I can find no trace on the forum where you might reply! My email address is chas@iprimus.com.au and I live in Australia in country Victoria.If you send a "here I am" email I can repeat my attempts to contact you (assuming you want me to!)

For anyone else who might be interested! Brown and Barlow were formed in 1902 and merged with Amac carburetters and Binks ditto in 1927 to form Amal Carburetters. The name, trade mark etc have not been registered since around this time.

B&B never made a die-cast carburetter, only brass and the first misadventures in this direction were made by Amal in 1933

Whilst the very early B&B carburetters might have had engraved trade marks, certainly by 1909 their markings were always stamped in. B&B were quite a successful company and their volume of production was so large that engraving each one was probably not feasible.

The control lever photo posted by John Hinkley (thanks John) is actually a 1920's design but mine is earlier, flat topped and has the legends B&B Patent and Bowden Licence stamped in

Regards, Chas

So what bike is it going on? Got pics of teh bike?

They probably didn't bother to register it as a trademark in those days. Nobody in China was making knock-off parts in 1910.

.

... The word "misrepresentation" springs to mind ... although I haven't checked the legislation of the time.

MichaelG.

Gordon Bennett Michael it was 19 ought plonk,
Get a life

.

Simply responding to Hopper's "didn't bother" comment.

... If they claimed it as a Trade Mark, I'm pretty sure they should have registered it as a Trade Mark.

No, I don't really care a jot about it ... It was just conversation.

MichaelG.

.

Best not to look too closely at some of our own efforts, like this example:

William Booth, a notorious forger, worked in Perry Barr, Birmingham. Using the manufacture of copper tokens as a cover, he began to produce forgeries of silver coins. He openly sent his base metal to Birmingham to be rolled to the required thickness. Eventually his activities attracted the attention of the authorities and he was arrested, convicted of forgery and hanged.

Hanging offences apart, Birmingham was famous across the world for producing imitations.

In the early sixties I was fortunate to live in Malta for a few years. The number of Maltese momentos that were actually 'Made in England' for the tourist trade was a family joke.

Later on 'Made in Hong Kong' swept a lot of the British tat away, and they also had a reputation for counterfeits. This was when Hong Kong was a British Crown Colony.

I don't see Chinese industry as being much different from anyone else's. They are just the latest in a long succession of countries to industrialise. Some of it is very good and some of it is very bad, most of it uses the same tooling and techniques as everyone else, except the kit they use is likely to be more modern simply because their economy is developing.

What I think of Chinese policy in respect of Tibet, Human Rights, and island grabbing etc. is best left unsaid.

Dave

.

John,

That comment ^^^ makes me wonder if you mis-understood my remark about "misrepresentation".

My point was simply that if B&B claimed 'Trade Mark' status for their logo, but didn't actually register it; they [not you, or Chas] might be guilty of misrepresentation.

The "upside" to that thought being that; if they did register it, we may yet manage to find the official version.

... Please don't waste time replying to this; I just wanted to clarify.

MichaelG.

OK Michael understood now where you are coming from but two things spring to mind.

What happens if the printed logo differs from what the work could actually produce given the equipment of the time ?

Not the first time it has happened, the Indian Chief logo is very stylised, however the actual badges lack a lot of detail.

Second is I'm only interested in practical results, I derive no satisfaction from the theory.

.

John,

Just to show that I agree with your approach ^^^

MichaelG

Hi Hopper! As you can see I got the photo uploadedI'm busy at the moment but will post bike photos soon

Regards, Chas

Here's a nice (Mid 19th century) example of a trade mark stamped into brass and ink-stamped onto the dial of the same instrument. Both very similar but not identical.

Neil

Whilst both are right Neil, the purists in the vintage world and they are as bad if not worse than Muddle Engineers will only accept the original on the part no matter how different it is to printed matter.

It's a given fact nowadays that any vehicle entered into a concours competition is far superior to how it left the factory.

In those days sales and getting stuff out the door meant more than polish.

No doubt of little help, but to return to the OP's request......

The key word to search on is "Retro" fonts.

Here's a link to a huge collection, all free. I've d/l several in the past. You'll need to wade thro' screen after screen but some are close to maybe what you're looking for such as "Penshurst" on this page:-

**LINK**

True dat. There are also more of them than ever left the factory in some instances, Manxes, Triumph Hurricanes, Ducati 900SS (bevel) and blown BMW racers for example.

Thanks to the over-restorers and the fakers, it's becoming the original-paint unrestored survivors that bring the top money these days, bikes that show an honest lifetime of use and abuse.