This is the place to come to learn about Avery style needle cases.

Butterfly

Butterfly needle case
Needle Case


Design Representation

Design Details

Needle Case Type:

Figural

Patent/Registered to:

William Avery & Son - Redditch

Patent/Design Representation #:

Ornamental Class1: Metal: #254656

Patent/Design Registration Date:

August 4, 1871

Location of Patent/Design Registration:

The National Archives (TNA) - Kew, UK

Reference #:

TNA Representation - BT 43/30/254656
TNA Register - BT 44/2/254656

Dimensions:

12.3 x 6 x 1.2

Material:

Brass

Name Variations:

a) W. Avery & Son - Redditch
b) Baggallays, Westall & Spence - London
c) Copestake, Moore, Crampton & Co - London
d) Grands Magasins du Louvre - Paris
e) W. Hall & Co - Studley
f) Thomas Harper - Redditch
g) Hayes, Crossley & Co, Alcester & London
h) T. & J. Holyoake - Redditch
i) Arthur James - Redditch
j) Mappin & Webb - London, Sheffield
k) H. Milward & Sons - Redditch
l) Charles Schleicher - Belle-Vallee
m) S. Thomas & Sons - Redditch
m n) W. Woodfield & Son - Redditch
o) Unmarked

Other Variations:

Nickel-silver version (the sole source of this information is Horowitz and Mann as no example of this needle case in nickel-silver has been seen by the authors of this website)

Additional Photographs

Back and side views

Side view and Avery signature detail

Minerva head on one wing with the Copestake signature detail on the other wing (photos from eBay)

Hall signature detail and Milward signature detail (photos from eBay)

Unmarked detail left side and right side (photos courtesy of Sandi Falconer)

Back with different needle packet sizes 5/6 and 7 on one side and 8 and 9/10 with Charles Schleicher signature detail on the other side and Schleicher needle packets (photos courtesy of Norma Sue Kirkpatrick)

Back with Hayes, Crossley & Co, Alcester & London signature detail (photo courtesy of Veronique de Sousa Andrade) and W. Woodfield & Sons signature detail (photo courtesy of the Winterthur Museum Collection)

Back with Baggallays signature detail (photo courtesy of Tricia Maddox) and back with Harper signature detail (photo courtesy of Gale Ebersole)

Back with James signature detail (photo courtesy of Clarice Birch) and Holyoake signature detail (photo from eBay)

Back with Mappin & Webb signature detail (photo from eBay) and back with the Grands Magasins signature detail (photo from the salesroom)

Back with Thomas signature detail (photo from eBay).

Butterfly with colored highlights (photo from eBay).  After carefully examining photographs of this item, it appears the colored parts were added at a later date.  If you have this needle case please contact us so we can examine it more closely.  Please note the antenna on this item are not original, they were replaced with a small piece of wire.  Additional photos might help us to truly authenticate whether the coloring is an original part of this item.

As of January 2017 three additional examples with painted sections were found, a fourth was discovered in an old Thimble Society newsletter, and then in 2023 another was sold on eBay.  All five of the butterflies with painted sections are slightly different, they are not consistently painted in the same way, which seems to indicate the color was added later.  Additional research was undertaken to see if Birmingham or Redditch manufacturers painted other brass items in this manner during the time period in which Avery needle cases were manufactured.  No evidence has been found showing painting like this.  It seems most likely that this coloring was added at a later date and was not an original part of the these Butterfly needle cases.

Photographs from the Internet

Left: Photograph on the back cover of The Thimble Society of London, Volume 5, Issue 6 - Spring 1995. Right: another photograph from the internet.

Left: Photograph from eBay.

Facts

The High Brown Fritillaries butterfly shown here is found throughout Europe and Asia.  It seems most likely that this is the butterfly that W. Avery & Son used as the model for their butterfly needle cases.

facts

History

Butterfly collecting was one of the most popular pastimes during the Victorian Era because the Industrial Revolution gave the middle class time for leisure activities.  Victorians loved nature and Darwin's "Origin of Species", published in 1859, revolutionized the way people thought about it.  The Speckled Wood butterfly seen here, which is also found in Northern and Central Europe, has many of the characteristic similar to the butterflies on Avery needle cases.

history

Miscellaneous

The Monarch is the best known North American butterfly.  Although rarely found in the UK, they first appeared in Australian and New Zealand in the mid-19th century.  The Monarch is renowned for its spring migration from Mexico to Canada and the U.S. and its return in the fall.

location