A. Sommerville and Co
of Birmingham
Early 1800s: According to one source, Alfred Sommerville had been a wholesale dealer in steel pens and stationers sundries for many years but it is hard to understand how this aligns with the rest of the information presented here.
1815 Alfred Sommerville Smith was born in Burton.
1835 There was no listing of Sommerville as a steel pen manufacturer in the Directory of Birmingham[1]
1836 Sommerville Smith had left Birmingham. At some point he seems to have stopped using the name Smith.
1851 Sommerville returned to Birmingham as the agent of a Belgian firm, with which Maurice Pollack was connected.[2]
1851 Maurice Pollack was sent to Birmingham to manage the newly established business of Alfred Sommerville.[3] at houses in Legge Lane, Graham Street.
1852 Mr Sansum, foreman of Mr Mason's, approached Sommerville, asking him to sell some of Mason's pens.[4]
Sommerville's exported Mason's pens with their name on them too.
1865 Pollack and Sommerville became partners.
Sommerville was often abroad, leaving the business in Pollack's hands.
In 1870 Josiah Mason bought the company and kept Pollack on as the manager. Dissolution of the Partnership between Alfred Sommerville and Maurice Pollack, carrying on business as Merchants, Factors, Commission Agents, and Manufacturers, at Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, and elsewhere, under the style or firm of A. Sommerville and Co.[5]
1876 The firm was amalgamated with Wiley and Son and James Perry and Co under the title of Perry and Co; Pollack became the Secretary of the new company.
1940 All 3 companies (Mason, Sommerville and Perry) were listed at Lancaster Street, Birmingham[6]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1835 Birmingham Directory
- ↑ Memories of Maurice Pollack cited in the "Life of Josiah Mason" [1]
- ↑ Memories of Maurice Pollack cited in the "Life of Josiah Mason" [2]
- ↑ Memories of Maurice Pollack cited in the "Life of Josiah Mason" [3]
- ↑ London Gazette 24 Oct 1871
- ↑ 1940 Kelly´s Directory of Birmingham
- [4] The Pen Room