The Lynx Effect?

[AndyT]

I was doing some woodwork last night, and happened to look at two old saws side by side. One was this one:

Made by E Garlick & Son, Sheffield, with a Lynx brand:

No great mystery there; it's easy enough to find (from the Thomas Flinn website) that the current company bought the brand in 1999 and that the Garlicks started making saws in Sheffield in 1858. It's a nice saw that I bought in a mixed box of tools.

But I also have this one, bought for a fiver on eBay when nobody else was looking:

which is by G Preston of Sheffield - not the better known Edward Preston of Birmingham - and also features the rather whiskery lynx (though somewhat more cheerful, I think):

So we have what must be an unusual example of two different saw makers both using the same branding. I wonder if Preston had the mark first and then sold it to the Garlicks - but the Garlick factory was the Lynx Works so that seems unlikely.

Backsaw.net doesn't list G Preston at all. I did find one old reference on the Old Tools archive to a saw by "Geo Preston" who is presumably our man, but the trail seems to go cold quite quickly. Anyone else got any ideas? Or cases of a brand being sold or shared like this?

 

[Slinger]

Was Preston the retailer?
Slinger

 

[bugbear]

Backsaw.net doesn't list G Preston at all. I did find one old reference on the Old Tools archive to a saw by "Geo Preston" who is presumably our man, but the trail seems to go cold quite quickly. Anyone else got any ideas? Or cases of a brand being sold or shared like this?

In some cases OEM'ing is explicit - perhaps Garlick were making saws for Preston? Certainly some Norris planes used I. Sorby blades, and the blades carry BOTH brands.

BugBear

 

[Cheshirechappie]

By pure coincidence, a small parcel arrived at CC Towers this morning courtesy of everybody's favourite interweb auction site, containing a moulding plane. The toe has two stamps on it. The first is the maker, Varvill and Sons, Ebor Works, York, and a small trade-mark device. The second, below it, is more relevant - G P Preston Tool Merchant Sheffield.

I'll have a guess that Preston's were a big enough concern to commission their stock directly from makers, and did enough business with each maker to have their trade name embossed alongside (or sometimes instead of) the maker's.

By the way, I like those lynx faces. They remind me of next door's cat (I do feeding duty when they're on holiday). The first is exactly the expression worn by Cat when denied access to my dinner, the second is exactly the expression when Cat is unexpectedly presented with a small plate of chopped ham. I think the mark-maker must have observed the Works moggy carefully before setting to work. You just don't get 'character' like that on modern tools!

 

[AndyT]

Thanks all - I think you've collectively cracked it. Whites Directory of 1901 lists a George T Preston as an ironmonger

so I'm willing to believe that George P Preston was either his father or his son, and sold Lynx saws made by the Garlicks alongside his Varvill planes. Anyway, CC's plane proves that GP Preston was a retailer - though I imagine it must have been a bit of a challenge retailing tools in Sheffield when nearly all your potential customers would have been related to someone in the trade.

It cuts quite nicely too!

 

[toolsntat]

G.P.Preston was definitely a retailer with salesmen calling as far down as Leicester at least.
My old boss used to buy tools from them back in the day :wink:

Will have to check out the cats grin next time I look at the saw collection.....
One of which is a Zinc saw made by Lynx for cutting ice, or was it salt?

Andy