What a pathetic response, just what one would expect from a spy sent from a parallel Earth. Who are you? Are you an agent for the Fringe Department?
Help Identifying 1919 English Pipe - The 'F' Brand with Birmingham Silver Hallmarks
- Thread starter MCJ
- Start date
YOU WERE TOLD TO REMAIN SILENT!
Now you must pay
Your tobacco will be turned to dust, your pipes rendered into wood chips
MuWAHhahahahaha!!!
Both of our pipes have identical stamping on the shank: The 'F' Brand
Stampings on the silver collars are different: Yours has Glasgow silver hallmarks (mine has Birmingham) with M.F. sponsor's/maker's mark (mine has W.R) The differences in silver hallmarks and sponsor's/makers marks are expertly explained by jruss in post #12 above
Love this stuff!
I read pipesmagazine for the articlesMy wife thinks I’m looking at (pipe) porn whenever I log onto the Forums
She’s quite disbelieving when I tell her that there is no end of fascinating FACTS to be gleaned
Thank you Jon, George and Jesse
Because every few years an old thread with my posts is revived I have prepared an emendation to the Friedlander story and will park it here where generations yet unborn may one day find it and rejoice. With any luck this will be long after I’ve gone to that great pipe forum in the sky. This information will not affect the attribution of the hallmarked F Brand pipes posted in this thread, but does provide better information about who William Milligan was and his relationship to A. Friedlander. It is not, thank God, my present aspiration to prepare a comprehensive history of the various Friedlanders and their divers enterprises; this will barely skim the surface.
William Milligan was born in Airdrie, near Glasgow, in 1879, Although not the family business (his father Joshua dealt in eggs, butter, and fish before becoming a van driver) by the turn of the century young William was working as a traveler (ie salesman) in the tobacco trade. A decade later he's listed as manager of a cigar and pipe merchant; whether he was also the proprietor is unclear. A decade later still Milligan is listed as being in the wholesale tobacco trade, and by this time is clearly the owner of his business. Evidently Milligan had a retail operation as well because he's listed in 1920 as a tobacconist with a shop at 252 Byres Road in Glasgow, and in 1925 as a tobacconist with a shop at 415 on the Great Western Road, also in Glasgow. At some point in the next few years he moved again and, I suspect, shifted from a mixed retail/wholesale operation to one focused on wholesale. In 1930 we find Milligan now located at the 77 Queen Street address with both a warehouse and office dedicated to the wholesale tobacconist business. Where we start to care about Milligan is just a few years later, on January 24, 1934 when he bought A. Friedlander and Company from the executrix (presumably the widow) of Andrew Smith. Unclear is whether Milligan had a previous association with the company; had he worked for them over his 30+ years in the Glasgow tobacconist trade? No clue, but it's certainly possible. In any case for a couple of years Milligan kept the A. Friedlander name but by 1936 had transferred at least the brands to William Milligan Co. That is why the 1936 fancy goods brand directory lists, for the first time, the owner of F Brand as William Milligan; and if you check other brand directories (there were two industry publications that led the field in the UK; Tobacco, and Cigar & Tobacco World; yesterday I only had access to the former, not the latter) you will find that William Mulligan continues to be listed as the owner of F Brand at least through 1941. Those directories in my possession produced after 1941 no longer list F Brand or mention William Mulligan. And in fact death called for William, as it does for all men, on November 18, 1941. What happened to the business at that point? Did Milligan's widow Elizabeth (who survived him by almost fourteen years) continue to operate it either directly or by proxy? Did his 26 year old son, Alexander, step up? Or was it perhaps sold as part of winding up the estate? No idea, but one thing that's clear is it wasn't liquidated; A. Friedlander continued to be listed at a Queen Street address in Glasgow phone books through the 1954 edition. Since Milligan's widow died in 1955 it's tempting to assume the business was wound down upon her passing. But that's all it is, an assumption. Having dug more deeply into the WIlliam Mulligan conundrum than I intended my curiosity on the subject is exhausted. And perhaps the reader's is as well.
Have courage; we're very near to end. I do want to go back to the A. Friedlander business for just a moment to organize and trace the changes in ownership as I understand them. Recall that it was founded as Alex Friedlander by Alexander Friedlander (~1817-1877) about 1858; it was located at the 23 Royal Exchange Square almost at the start and for over sixty years. After Alexander's death in 1877 the business was taken over by Alexander's widow, Sarah Assur Friedlander (1826-1906) in conjunction with her son, Montague Alexander Friedlander (1858/59-1922). A few years later, on December 31, 1881 Sarah withdrew from the partnership and left Montague, along with a new partner named John Burman Macauly, in charge. Less than three years later, on September 15, 1884 Macauly left the company and Montague remained as sole partner. This remained the case for many years. Montague's marriage to Isabel Rose Meyer produced three children, one of whom was Julius Assur Friedlander. After some 34 years at the helm Montague was ready to step down and Julius (1889-1951) at 29 was old enough to assume control. On December 31, 1918 it became official; Montague withdrew from the partnership and Julius ran the business. Less than two months before Julius had anglized his surname to Freeland.
In the 1927 Glasgow directory Julius Freeland, still a young man, is shown as still active in the company, as is another man named Andrew Smith. From subsequent events I infer that Julius retired from the partnership in the late twenties or early thirties, leaving Smith in charge as sole owner. WIthin what must have been a pretty short span of time Smith died and the executrix of his estate (presumably his widow) sold the business to WIlliam Milligan on January 24, 1934. From this point Milligan controlled it until his death over seven years later, and if I had to guess I'd say his widow and son controlled it for the last 13 years of its existence.
William Milligan was born in Airdrie, near Glasgow, in 1879, Although not the family business (his father Joshua dealt in eggs, butter, and fish before becoming a van driver) by the turn of the century young William was working as a traveler (ie salesman) in the tobacco trade. A decade later he's listed as manager of a cigar and pipe merchant; whether he was also the proprietor is unclear. A decade later still Milligan is listed as being in the wholesale tobacco trade, and by this time is clearly the owner of his business. Evidently Milligan had a retail operation as well because he's listed in 1920 as a tobacconist with a shop at 252 Byres Road in Glasgow, and in 1925 as a tobacconist with a shop at 415 on the Great Western Road, also in Glasgow. At some point in the next few years he moved again and, I suspect, shifted from a mixed retail/wholesale operation to one focused on wholesale. In 1930 we find Milligan now located at the 77 Queen Street address with both a warehouse and office dedicated to the wholesale tobacconist business. Where we start to care about Milligan is just a few years later, on January 24, 1934 when he bought A. Friedlander and Company from the executrix (presumably the widow) of Andrew Smith. Unclear is whether Milligan had a previous association with the company; had he worked for them over his 30+ years in the Glasgow tobacconist trade? No clue, but it's certainly possible. In any case for a couple of years Milligan kept the A. Friedlander name but by 1936 had transferred at least the brands to William Milligan Co. That is why the 1936 fancy goods brand directory lists, for the first time, the owner of F Brand as William Milligan; and if you check other brand directories (there were two industry publications that led the field in the UK; Tobacco, and Cigar & Tobacco World; yesterday I only had access to the former, not the latter) you will find that William Mulligan continues to be listed as the owner of F Brand at least through 1941. Those directories in my possession produced after 1941 no longer list F Brand or mention William Mulligan. And in fact death called for William, as it does for all men, on November 18, 1941. What happened to the business at that point? Did Milligan's widow Elizabeth (who survived him by almost fourteen years) continue to operate it either directly or by proxy? Did his 26 year old son, Alexander, step up? Or was it perhaps sold as part of winding up the estate? No idea, but one thing that's clear is it wasn't liquidated; A. Friedlander continued to be listed at a Queen Street address in Glasgow phone books through the 1954 edition. Since Milligan's widow died in 1955 it's tempting to assume the business was wound down upon her passing. But that's all it is, an assumption. Having dug more deeply into the WIlliam Mulligan conundrum than I intended my curiosity on the subject is exhausted. And perhaps the reader's is as well.
Have courage; we're very near to end. I do want to go back to the A. Friedlander business for just a moment to organize and trace the changes in ownership as I understand them. Recall that it was founded as Alex Friedlander by Alexander Friedlander (~1817-1877) about 1858; it was located at the 23 Royal Exchange Square almost at the start and for over sixty years. After Alexander's death in 1877 the business was taken over by Alexander's widow, Sarah Assur Friedlander (1826-1906) in conjunction with her son, Montague Alexander Friedlander (1858/59-1922). A few years later, on December 31, 1881 Sarah withdrew from the partnership and left Montague, along with a new partner named John Burman Macauly, in charge. Less than three years later, on September 15, 1884 Macauly left the company and Montague remained as sole partner. This remained the case for many years. Montague's marriage to Isabel Rose Meyer produced three children, one of whom was Julius Assur Friedlander. After some 34 years at the helm Montague was ready to step down and Julius (1889-1951) at 29 was old enough to assume control. On December 31, 1918 it became official; Montague withdrew from the partnership and Julius ran the business. Less than two months before Julius had anglized his surname to Freeland.
In the 1927 Glasgow directory Julius Freeland, still a young man, is shown as still active in the company, as is another man named Andrew Smith. From subsequent events I infer that Julius retired from the partnership in the late twenties or early thirties, leaving Smith in charge as sole owner. WIthin what must have been a pretty short span of time Smith died and the executrix of his estate (presumably his widow) sold the business to WIlliam Milligan on January 24, 1934. From this point Milligan controlled it until his death over seven years later, and if I had to guess I'd say his widow and son controlled it for the last 13 years of its existence.
Jon,
I’m, as always, gobsmacked by your research and scholarship
If only MrLowerCase was still around for you to egg each other on
Perhaps Jim & Kevin should collate your articles and keep them as a reference guide for current and future members just as they
did with the Ken Barnes Collection
Jon,
I’m, as always, gobsmacked by your research and scholarship
If only MrLowerCase was still around for you to egg each other on
Perhaps Jim & Kevin should collate your articles and keep them as a reference guide for current and future members just as they
did with the Ken Barnes Collection
Thanks for the props.
It was of course Jesse (not Jim) who undertook the immense labor of finding, editing, formatting and publishing Ken Barnes’ posts. That kind of thing is always much more work than most people think, and grateful as I am that Jesse did it for Ken I wouldn’t wish another project like that on a dog.