REGISTERED TRADE MARKS
The use of registered trade marks commenced in 1876 and they were listed on a very regular basis, under fifty classes in the Trade Mark Journal. This journal gives full details of every trade mark, showing the design or motif being registered along with the date of registration, details of the proprietor and the class (or classes) for which the mark was designated. All registered trade marks are arranged numerically and can therefore sometimes be confused with Registered Numbers if the words 'trade mark' have not been used on the original item. However , it is clear that this relates to a motif rather than an actual design shape, the distinction should be apparent.
Referring to the ginger beer illustrated with this article, the trade mark of John Pratt & Son is shown to be a raised arm clenching a mallet -presumably denoting strength. With the trade mark is ' No. 22964 REGIStd while their codd bottles actually state 'Rd. No. 22964' (hence the easy confusion with registered numbers). The page from the relevant Trade Mark Journal containing Pratt's trade mark is shown here :-
As can be seen, it is dated 13 November 1880 and was published in the journal dated 5 January 1881 . Incidentally, the census taken shortly afterwards in April 1881, confirms John Pratt's address as being 58 Leigh Street East , at which time he was described as a soda water ,manufacturer aged 38 years. With him was his wife Mary Ann and four children, the eldest of which , Walter, aged 17, was also a soda water manufacturer. They must have been fairly prosperous, for a servant was also in residence. Ten years later, in the 1891 census, John Pratt was still at the same address, then described as an aerated water manufacturer., while son Walter , then married, was living some distance away in Livesey Street. While most researchers limit their search for information to Trade Directories, I hope the above demonstrates that while Directories are certainly useful, there is additional information that can be discovered on individual firms.
All the trade marks are indexed on an annual basis, the earlier volumes of the Trade Mark Journal from 1876 to 1883 give the proprietors names, class of goods and the type of article within the class of goods being registered, After 1883, the latter category is omitted and therefore if searching for goods of a particular type the indexes are not as informative. The original representations of trade marks are also at the Public Record Office from 1876 to 1938 (BT 82) The earlier trade marks that were registered tend to be those that had already been in use for some time, and the Trade Mark Journals state the length of time that such marks had been in use - very useful when researching the history of a firm or product. During the 1880's onwards, the majority of marks registered are new ones and one only has to flip through a random volume of the journal to find trade mark Js very familiar to us today.
As with the Patent Journal, copies of the Trade Mark Journal are held in some of the major reference libraries. A little word of warning is that they are rather bulky and its best to wear some old clothes!!
Good Luck, Peter Hammond
References (for all Research File articles)
Public Record Office information Sheet No.42 ( Designs and Trade Marks : Registers and Representations)
Public Record Office 1881 Census (RG11/3980 p.43 ) ,and 1891 Census (RG12/3231 p.17 and 3242 p.120
Registered and Patented Clay Tobacco Pipes, Peter J Hammond, privately published 1988 ( a revised version of a paper published by British Archaeological Reports in 1985)
The Collector's Book of Ink Bottles , June Tansley, 1980
Collectors Year Book '77 compiled by Gordon Litherland and Ian Waterfield.