E Atkins / Atcraft Ltd, furniture manufacturers

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1432 Atcraft
Held at	: London Metropolitan University Special Collections   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://student.londonmet.ac.uk/library/using-the-library/special-collections/ ›
Full title	: E Atkins / Atcraft Ltd, furniture manufacturers
Date(s)	: 1881-1983
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 79 volumes and 2 box files (2 linear metres)
Name of creator(s)	: E Atkins / Atcraft Ltd, of London | furniture manufacturers

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The firm was established as E Atkins in 1879 by Edwin Atkins. The firm originally had factories at Church Row, Bethnal Green, London and in Birmingham. It was incorporated in 1922, with Edwin Atkins, his son Claude Cyril Atkins and George Clifton Sunley as shareholders and directors. It later changed its name to Atcraft Ltd, and moved to a factory at the Atcraft Works, Alperton, Wembley in the 1920s. The product range consited mainly of indoor and garden chairs, occasional and garden tables, hall furniture, bureaux, hammocks and camp beds, cots and playpens, prams and invalid chairs. In later years the firm concentrated almost entirely on producing nursery and garden furniture. The firm ceased trading in the 1980s.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of E Atkins and Atcraft furniture manufacturers of Wembley, London, comprising trade catalogues, 1913-1983; ledgers, private ledgers, day books and salary books, 1915-1960s (the run of each series is incomplete); sales summaries, 1933-1973; balance sheets, 1908, 1911, 1913-1915; articles of association, 1922; changes to articles of association, 1946; minutes of Directors' meetings, 1922-1946; designs of cartoons for nursery furniture; address book of staff and travellers; stocktaking book, 1881-1882; exhibitions accounts book, 1921-1963; address book of staff and travellers; tables of descendants of Edwin Atkins and George Clifton Sunley; papers relating to centenary celebrations of the firm, 1979; photographs of company vehicles, 1950s; press cutting of photograph of retired staff [1940s-1950s]. Many of the earlier trade catalogues bear the name of Claude Cyril Atkins, one of the Directors of the firm, and a son of Edwin Atkins the founder of the firm.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English.

System of arrangement:

The trade catalogues are arranged in rough chronological order.

Conditions governing access:

Enquiries should be made by email to specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk

Conditions governing reproduction:

Details available upon request

Finding aids:

The collection is unlisted.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was acquired via Ed Blackburn, a lecturer at the London College of Furniture, when Atrcraft ceased trading.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Initially compiled by Robert Baxter as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project. Subsequent amendments made by the Archives Project Team at London Metropolitan University in 2016.

Rules or conventions:
Initially compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Aug 2002