Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke:  (1877 – 1953), the son of a boiler-maker and a governess, left school at thirteen. He spent eighteen-months in an architect’s office, before joining his father in the family business. He took up the hobby of making model stationary steam engines. Realising the impossibility for the ordinary enthusiast of purchasing small parts, which he had made in his father’s workshops, he soon began a small mail-order business. His father’s bookkeeper, H. F. R. Franklin, joined him in the project.

Bassett-Lowke was a born salesman and in 1899 he and his partner published their first catalogue. Realising the value of photographs, but unable to afford printed ones, they laboriously pasted real photographs into the catalogue. Later ones were fully illustrated and had striking covers designed by well-known draughtsmen.

Bassett-Lowke was inspired by his visit to the Paris Exhibition in 1900, where he made contact with German manufacturers, from whom he bought model trains painted in British livery. Soon he began manufacture in Northampton. The company began making ‘waterline’ ship models in 1908. This type of model, showing only the parts above the waterline, were used in wartime as training aids for the Navy and Air Force. Yachts were also made to sail on boating lakes. Large shipping companies commissioned models of their luxury liners to display in their offices. Miniature railways were made for wealthy individuals and for exhibitions and resorts. The skilled model maker E. W. Twining formed Twining Models Ltd., which produced the highest quality architectural models with Bassett-Lowke Ltd.

In the 1914-18 war Bassett-Lowke Ltd. made the gauges which tested the standard parts of guns. During the 1939-45 war a great variety of work was done. A method of training for aircraft recognition using mirrors was devised. They produced training models of the sectional Inglis and later Bailey bridges. Perhaps the most important construction of this nature was the model of the floating Mulberry harbour, which was used to land troops in Normandy in 1944.

In 1908 Bassett-Lowke opened his first London shop at 257 High Holborn, moving to number 112 in 1910. His company made great use of trade shows, not only displaying their own goods, but often supplying companies with models, too. Many 15” gauge railways were installed to carry visitors around exhibitions. Usually the displays were of smaller gauge models and large tabletop systems. However, mail order remained an important part of the business.

After W.J.’s death in 1953 the company continued to make high-quality ship and industrial models. The Bassett-Lowke and Franklin families sold their shares in 1967. Models are no longer made in Northampton.
 

Further Information:

Bassett-Lowke Society: www.bassettlowkesociety.org.uk

For further information on modern Bassett-Lowke models see Website: www.bassettlowke.co.uk