Needle Manufacturers
To date, the names of 27 needle manufacturers had been found associated with Avery needle cases. Of these, 4 have only been found on patients or design registrations, whereas 23 other needle manufacturer's names are found stamped on a variety of mostly flat-style Avery needle cases. All of these businesses except one, who was from Germany, were located in the Redditch area where 90% of the world’s needles were produced during the Victorian Period. The needle district in this region was divided between the counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire with the majority of the needle companies being located in Worcestershire. Using the 1876 Worcestershire directory as a guide, since it covers most of the Redditch area, we find a total of 73 needle manufacturers. Of these only 17 or 23% are found with their names stamped or engraved on Avery style needle cases. This data indicates only one-fifth of the areas needle manufacturers were involved with fancy brass needle cases. (NOTE: The 6 remaining needle manufacturers whose names appear on brass needle cases were not included in this analysis as they were located in Warwickshire which was not included in this directory).
Of the 23 Redditch needle manufacturers with their names stamped on Avery needle case only 10 had their name placed on more than two needle case designs: Avery (128), Milward (18), Schleicher (8), Hall (8), Hayes, Crossley & Co (5), Wacker (4), Woodfield (4), Thomas (4), Harper (3) and Morrall (3). Additionally, only 11 had their names placed on exclusive designs (designs not found with another company name): Avery (75), Milward (8), Hall (4), Bartleet (2), Johnson (2), Morrall (2), Smith (1), Thomas (1), Townsend (1), Turner (1), and Wyres (1). The most common designs are the Butterfly (14 different names), the Quadruple Golden Casket - Fleur de lis (14 different names), the Louise - Folding (9 different names) and the Scallop Shell (8 different names). Although the design registration/patent for the Louise - Folding has not been located, we do know that Avery designed/patented the Butterfly, Quadruple Golden Caketet - Fleru de lis and the Scallop Shell. Of the 189 signed needle case designs, Avery’s name can be found on 128 or 68%. The percentage increases to 88% if we look only at signed figural needle cases (92 of 104).
The 4 Redditch area needle manufacturers whose names were only found on patients or design registrations were: John Anthony Croft, W. W. Gould, Richard Newhall & Sons and Jospeh Welch. Three of the five needle cases they registered were actually produced, but they did not include these needle manufacturer’s names.
What the data tells us
There was only one needle manufacturer who used brass needle cases in a significant way to market needles and that was William Avery. His biggest competition came from H. Milward & Sons and W. Hall & Co, two of the largest needle manufacturers in Redditch at the time. Of the 18 needle case designs found with the Milward name, 12 were designed/patented by someone else (only 3 of these were exclusive for Milward), including 7 that were designed/patented by Avery. Of the remaining 5 Milward signed items, 4 were basically the same design, the Fan which has 6 varieties of brass covers (2 versions are not signed). Therefore Milward only had 4 truly unique needle case designs with his name compared to Avery’s 75. Now let’s take a look at Hall. All 8 needle cases with Hall’s name were designed by someone else; 1 by Avery, 2 by Birmingham companies, 2 by a Liverpool firm and the designer/patentee for the remaining 3 is unknown; only 4 were exclusive designs. Statistically Avery’s name was on over 1800% ( Hall's 4 x 1800% = 72) more unique needle case designs than his closest competition. Avery really didn’t have any serious competition from the other needle manufacturers.
(NOTE: Only needle cases known to exist stamped with a name were include in the analysis of needle manufacturers (patented only items and items without a company name stamped on the needle cases were not included). See Needle Manufacturer Data or W. Avery & Son Data for details.
