Vintage Simpson brush help

[mdwolfie86]

Hey guys,

Today I received this brush which I purchased because I was feeling about 99.9% certain it was a vintage Simpson it is marked 58 best badger sterilized. The only thing that has me stumped is the decal, which says EXCLUSIVE made in England. Can anyone help me here? Was I wrong to assume it was made by Simpson? Or is this maybe an early model or what have you? Any help is appreciated thanks fellas.

Sorry for the horrible lighting.

 

[Swazilander]

Rooney and Simpson have sold their brushes in the past to retailers that put their own labeling on. I've seen it on multiple occasions. All that said; it's still a fine brush ... restore it, make it your own and be happy.

 

[mdwolfie86]

Rooney and Simpson have sold their brushes in the past to retailers that put their own labeling on. I've seen it on multiple occasions. All that said; it's still a fine brush ... restore it, make it your own and be happy.

The fact I got another project to look forward to has already made me happy. I will say the brush is a lot larger than I expected though.

 

[bakerbarber]

The engraving looks like Simpsons to me.

Looks great. Congrats!

What kind of knot, what size will it get?

 

[mdwolfie86]

The engraving looks like Simpsons to me.

Looks great. Congrats!

What kind of knot, what size will it get?

Thanks bud, I know for sure a two band badger but I'm still contemplating the knot size. It appears to be 22mm at the opening but I think I might be okay with stuffing a 24mm knot without compromising the "hips" on top of the handle.

 

[timwcic]

That is a Simpson, good pick up. Here is NOS #56 for comparison.

 

[mdwolfie86]

That is a Simpson, good pick up. Here is NOS #56 for comparison.

View attachment 806005

That's a beaut! Thanks for the info, any idea why they used that decal and not the Simpson one?

 

[BigJ]

Wonderful brush! Congratulations!

 

[timwcic]

That's a beaut! Thanks for the info, any idea why they used that decal and not the Simpson one?

It is a private label brush. Brush Manufacturers made product for different company and they put there marketing on them. This is one of my favorite private label brushes, a Rooney made brush for Penhaligons.

 

[mdwolfie86]

Wonderful brush! Congratulations!

Thank you amigo!

 

[mdwolfie86]

It is a private label brush. Brush Manufacturers made product for different company and they put there marketing on them. This is one of my favorite private label brushes, a Rooney made brush for Penhaligons.

View attachment 806029 View attachment 806030

Yup! That's awesome.

 

[jar_]

It just so happens that this thread here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

The topic of Private and Store labels is one of the things that even today can make life interesting. Often when you try to track down makers even with contemporary products you run into Confidentiality Agreements between the Store and the Maker limiting any disclosure of who did what.

Yet it is sometimes possible to make very educated guesses with a fairly high degree of confidence in the answers.

Here is a badger brush from Col Ichabod Cronk:

​

When asking about the actual maker the response is that a confidentiality agreement prevents discussing that.

But...

...looking at known Simpson 50 series brushes reveals this pattern:

​

Looking at two Gimbels labeled brushes points to one being from Vulfix while the other likely Simpson.

I have brushes labeled Geo. Trumper that are almost certainly Vulfix and Simpson brushes and a Kent that is almost certainly made by Vulfix and Dunhill, Boots and Brooks Brothers brushes that are almost certainly RA Rooneys.

Sometimes it's easy, Coates branded brushes are Simpsons, so are Simpson Picadilly although that was a separate company. I have London Army Navy Store and Abraham Straus brushes that also have the Simpson imprint but different model designations.

But who makes the modern Mason Pearson brushes ( strong suspicions there )? Or the modern Truefitt & Hill brushes (really really strong suspicions there as well) but the modern Geo Trumper brushes are an unknown like the Mason Pearson ones.

And since in many cases both the makers and storefront no longer exist or the records no longer exits so much of the institutional knowledge has just been lost.

And then there are all the really nice brushes that were sold under store names that are stamped with a Diamond E ( <E> ) but no company name and so far I have been unable to find any record of a US or Canadian company like that.

 

[Anick]

It would be nice if someone made a list of known makers to their contract work.

 

[StuMcB]

Regards the kent V series of brushes, I've got a couple and did ask Kent about them. Their reply was that they made them for other brands such as vulfix and that they themselves sold them as and when. Apparently the Vulfix handles are more white in colour and dont darken with age but the Kent own branded ones comes in the more usual off white.

If I can find the email I'll post it up. Ive spoken to them sevrral times over the years but a lot of their records were destroyed by fire some years agao.

 

[jar_]

Regards the kent V series of brushes, I've got a couple and did ask Kent about them. Their reply was that they made them for other brands such as vulfix and that they themselves sold them as and when. Apparently the Vulfix handles are more white in colour and dont darken with age but the Kent own branded ones comes in the more usual off white.

If I can find the email I'll post it up. Ive spoken to them sevrral times over the years but a lot of their records were destroyed by fire some years agao.

But who is making them today? When I recently talked to them they commented someone who came to work with Kent in 1974 remembered that they "sold" that model at that time and that it was discontinued in the 1990s. Vulfix is still selling the 374, 375 & 376 and Truefitt & Hill is selling one that looks like the Vulfix and Rooney used to sell a model.

So is Kent still making them for Vulfix (Truefitt & Hill did say they do not sell Kent products recently) or did Vulfix continue the style once Kent stopped making them?

So much institutional knowledge has been lost it seems.

 

[StuMcB]

.Shave brush conspiracy. The way things are these days, every brush regardless of name is probably made in China. According the Plisson they are the only manufacturers of brushs using genuine european badger hair.