Label Discoveries

As the English Sewing Cotton Company, latterly English Sewing Limited, developed over the decades of the 20th century, so did the labels on their Sylko reels. It seems impossible to pinpoint when exactly Sylko labels were subject to often tiny changes and how many differences there are in existance.

One end of the reels hardly altered - the red, white and blue logo end with the 3 shells branding. Not until the Tootal years did anyone dare mess with this branding.  It the blue and white ends stating the colour shade and number have myriad differences.

And even after years and years of collecting  - for me it must be more than a decade now - those little surprises keep on popping up. Here's a new one, discovered in an antiques shop in Hebden Bridge this week:


I have never before seen that wording "Fast to B.S. 3418-61". On all other reels that I have, the label simply states "Fast Dye". See the reel here with others for comparison:


I would say that the Blue Crest reel end label is later than the others, the style looks more modern, just pre plastic reel era. So that means that the fast wording was just a temporary change. If it had been permanent, there would have been more reels like this and I would have seen one before anyway.

How curious, and what does it mean? "BS" usually stands for British Standard. Beyond that, I have no idea what or why. Another illustration of the ongoing fascination of collecting Sylko reels, and the mysteries to be chased.

Check out the Agatha d'Ascoyne Papers here






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sylko Label Change Mystery

Image
 You can always tell the older wooden Sylko reels with their white and gold labels. These obviously pre-date the blue and white ones that are better known, because there are no colour names, only numbers and they are less modern in design. The big question for me is when did the changeover take place? When did the colours start to be given names on their labels? I would guess that it took place sometime in the mid-late 1920s. My reasoning is that I have an old style reel with a colour number D229 - this is the highest number that I own with labelling of this type. I also have an advertisement from 1930, stating that at that point in time, there were 280 shades. It is easier to date 1930s shades (see the post on the Colour Council) and at that point around 10 new shades a year were being introduced.  IF that rate was the same in the 1920s, then D229 was introduced in around 1925. But that if is everything. What we need is company documentation. And that still doesn't pinpoint e...
Read more

Post War Sylko Colours

Image
The British Colour Council continued to operate in the post war period, recommending uniformed colour trends of the coming year in fashion and home furnishings. As I outlined in my blog post about the set up and early years of the council, they particularly came into their own around royal events - or at least the colours introduced to mark these occasions received more prominent press coverage at the time. This trend returned after the WW2 hiatus and into the 1960s, with press reports dropping Sylko enthusiasts a few clues to the years that some of the shades were introduced.  In January 1953, a Leicester newspaper reported on the British Colour Council’s 2 day show in the city. Mention is made of shades introduced to mark Queen Elizabeth's coronation including Elizabethan Red, Princess Grey, Spun Gold and Beau Blue. I haven't seen these colours on a Sylko reel but then the article closes with the following line: "A joyous colour to my mind is Fiesta Pink, as different fr...
Read more

Synthetic Threads

Image
 As the 1960s progressed,  the development of synthetic threads became an important part of the English Sewing Ltd business. In 1966, the following synthetic brands were listed as products of the thread division: Polyfil, Trylko, Terral, Delta, Star By 1972, synthetic threads accounted for 50% of the company's industrial sales. Polyfil thread was processed at the Belper mill: "The first industrial thread to be produced by spinning cotton round a synthetic core to produce strength and sewability." In 1972, the Trylko product was renewed using more up to date production methods. Terylene fibre was spun into yarn at the Pendlebury mill. The fibre was then taken to Neilston to be twisted and wound. Finally, it was dyed, finished and spooled at Skipton. Star was a spun polyester thread that was stronger than Trylko but as fine as Sylko 50.  In 1982, Sylko Supreme was introduced.  This was a cotton covered polyester thread with a mercerised finish. https://www.etsy.com/uk/...
Read more