Products - the early years

When Mr C Brandauer took over the partnership of Ash Petit in 1862 he bought a dip pen manufacturing company. Over the next 100 years C Brandauer & Co Ltd produced millions and millions of dip pens which were exported throughout the world. The Company name was printed and on view on everything they produced from the pens to the beautiful boxes containing the nibs, and from stationery shop display boxes to adverts in the popular London magazines of the period.

The city of Birmingham was renowned world wide for manufacturing thousands of products including dip pens produced by C Brandauer & Co Ltd and its competitors. However, C Brandauer & Co Ltd is one of the few remaining companies established in Birmingham during the mid 19th century and to be manufacturing today in the same city during the 21st century. Further information about Brandauer products from more recent times will be written about in due course, so watch this space!

Incorporation

An agreement, dated 29 October 1901, was made between Charles Johannes Immanuel Brandauer of Vienna and Frederick Charles Immanuel Brandauer of 401-414 New John Street West Birmingham and Joseph Letiere Petit and Joseph Henry Petit of the same address and Joseph Smith of Handsworth as trustee for and on behalf of the company agreed that C Brandauer & Co would be turned into a Limited Company.

To make this possible it was agreed for the sale of the business of C Brandauer & Co and the assets and goodwill thereof to a Limited Company and to be named C Brandauer & Co Ltd with a capital of £240,000.

The two Brandauer names are the sons of the Founder Carl Henry Immanuel Brandauer, who had died by 1901. However, Joseph Letiere Petit who had been in partnership with Carl Brandauer was still working. His son, mentioned above, Joseph Henry Petit was the first of his sons to join the business, prior to this agreement, and my great Grandfather.

On 3 December 1901 the above mentioned parties and including C Brandauer & Co Ltd state that since the execution of the earlier agreement (29 October 1901) the Company has been incorporated as agreed and adopted by the first four names and that Joseph Smith from this time is discharged from all liability under the agreement.

It is interesting to read that it took nearly 40 years for C Brandauer to be incorporated and that by 1901 my great, great Grandfather had become a partner. In the near future I hope to write about when Joseph Letiere Petit became a partner as he certainly wasn't at the beginning in 1862 as many believed.

How can you help?

There are lots of ways to help me with my search for information about C Brandauer & Co Ltd. Here are some ideas:

1. Do some searching on the web - see what you find and let me know or just leave the website address on this Blog and I'll have a look. Don't think that I'll know about it - I might not.
2. Ask friends and family - perhaps they know someone who knows someone - you get the idea?
3. Information on manufacturing in Birmingham during the last 150 years - what was it like to work in other industries? That kind of information would be most helpful eg the Cadbury family built a village.
4. Maybe you are or know a historian who could be of help?
5. Are there local Associations in Birmingham that could help me. My great, great grandfather lived in Hansworth Wood. I believe the house he built has or is about to be demolished.
6. I know that many people lived in the back-to-back houses - I would be interested to learn more about this
7. Old maps of Birmingham would be useful, too
8. Do you know anyone who worked for the competition?
9. Who currently owns our old building and what is going to happen to it?

That's just a short list but I hope it helps. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Big thank you Marie-Louise

How it really started!

Recently, an old German contract has been translated and gives very useful information about the formation of C Brandauer and Co Ltd in Birmingham. This marvellous document, dated 23 April 1862, states that Mr Friedrich Kohler, born in Schonberg, near Freudenstadt and Mr Carl Heinrich Imanuel Brandauer, of Stuttgart, have, by agreement, and on joint account, purchased the steel nib factory of Messrs. Ash Petit and Co in Birmingham for the abovementioned purpose. It goes on to say that they shall be joint partners for the period of 10 years which has already been in existence since 13 February 1862 and will continue until 12 February 1872.

Mr Petit is, of course, my great, great grandfather Joseph Letiere Petit. However, nowhere in the contract does it mention that Mr Petit would be involved in the new business. This means that the story about Mr Petit and Mr Brandauer setting-up business together is not completely correct. Further on in the document it mentions that Mr Brandauer is not required to personally participate in the management of the business, and that he may appoint a deputy for himself, with a salary of up to £200. As yet I have not found out who the 'deputy' was but perhaps it was my great, great grandfather? I shall let you know as soon as I do!

How it all began ...

Stories handed down through the generations state that our family business began with my great, great grandfather, Mr Joseph Petit and his Austrian colleague Herr Charles Brandauer setting-up a joint business manufacturing pen nibs in Newtown Birmingham, UK in 1862. The firm was, and is still, called C Brandauer & Co Ltd. It was named after Mr Brandauer as legend has it as he supplied the money for Company and my great, great grandfather the technical knowledge.

My great, great grandfather had been in business prior to the formation of C Brandauer & Co Ltd with a partner called Mr Ash. Together they produced pen nibs under the name Ash Petit. This partnership lasted only a few years and the pen nibs from this era are now quite rare. Family gossip says that Mr Ash went off with all the money so my great, great grandfather was out of a job! However, I now know that this isn't true as the partnership between Mr Petit and Mr Ash was formally dissolved in Birmingham before Mr Brandauer started to build the new factory in New John Street West Birmingham UK.

This Victorian factory was used by the Company until the year 2000 when we moved premises, just a block away, to a more modern one built about 25 years ago.

So, this is the start of 'How it all began...'