Info sought on a vintage Bussey racket

[Backspin to the Future]

I recently acquired this vintage English Geo.G.Bussey "Driver" racket.
The "Driver" name was also used on their cricket bats and other sports equipment I believe.
It`s in pretty decent condition and to me looks like it should date to around the mid or late 1940`s based upon the 18x20 string pattern which was beginning to become more prevelant.
The interesting thing is that the company was wound up in 1939.
Does anybody know if another company bought them out or bought the rights to continue to use the name please?
The script/font on the shaft reminds me of Slazenger at the time -but as the cursive style was so popular its hardly conclusive .
The postcode on the racket is E18 (South Woodford,London) and not the famous Peckham factory in SE15.
If anyone has any info/ideas about the racket I`d like to hear them as almost all the photo`s on the web are from an earlier period.

 

[Grafil Injection]

I don't know that model, nor what happened to them after 1939, but the style does look similar to some late 1920s into 30s rackets, so it could be one of Bussey's own.

 

[Backspin to the Future]

I think it may well be a Bussey @Grafil -as it has the full company name on but all the manufacturing info (which isn`t much ) relates to Peckham.
One other fact I found was that a company of the same name was an exhibitor at a London trade fair in 1947 so maybe the company was ressurected after 1939 at the different location.
Maybe another family member revived it?
Were 18 x 20 strings really on 1930`s rackets?

 

[Grafil Injection]

Yes, I think there were some Slazengers, Wisdens etc with 18x20, or even 18x19. There are quite a few different Demon, Queens, Eclipse versions etc through the 30s, so it does seem to change through that decade. Hard to tell whether yours is an advanced for the 1930s model, or a standard 1940s model.

 

[Steve Huff]

At first I thought it might be a large department store putting it's name on a racket made by Slazenger or something, but it appears that Bussey did indeed manufacture rackets, as well as other high end sporting goods equipment and hunting gear. As tennis got more popular among the wealthy, he started making tennis rackets along with his polo, cricket, croquet, rugby and football goods. He also made roller skates, guns, fencing helmuts and even a type of clay pigeon for shooting practice. He had several patents. Interesting to read about him.

 

[Grafil Injection]

What's the weight? I suppose it could be a 1950s model designed in the classic style.

 

[Backspin to the Future]

The weight is approx 365/70 grams -about 15 grams lighter than my 1930` s Slazenger "Queens " model (20 mains )
I`ve started trying to find old maps of the area to see if I can see any signs of factories/workshops that are named by no luck yet.
Apparently there was another racket manufacturer called the Atlas Manufacturing company in the area at the time so I`m doing some digging on them too.
The were unknown to me until Jim from "jimstennis.com" replied to my email for help.

 

[Backspin to the Future]

A quick update on this slightly mysterious racket.
I have been doing a bit of digging and assisting Jim Warner from Jim`s Tennis on this racket and another similar one he was able to uncover a few weeks later.
After looking at old maps of the area what appears to be a factory premises was seen on the corner of of the adjoining streets mentioned as addresses.
Jim`s racket featured a distinctive round "Made in England" marking identical to those found on some post war Atlas rackets.
Atlas presumable bought up the Bussey trademarks after they became dormant.
Those trademarks have changed hands again since the demise of Atlas.

Interesting though that Atlas must have thought it made sense to have a seperate Bussey stand at the 1947 trade fair I mentioned previously.

Jim has written an extensive 6 page illustrated piece in the latest edition of "The Tennis Historian " available by post (or through the Wimbledon Museum I believe).
The article includes a summary of Busseys history and then goes on to show the pieces of evidence for the second phase on Bussey rackets
He gives a generous mention to me for sparking his interest in the later second generation "Bussey" rackets

I wont included any additional photo`s etc as they may be subject to copyright.

 

[Henry Hub]

Fantastic info!

 

[Backspin to the Future]

Thanks Henry, it took a while to piece things together -and the war probably meant some old archive stuff might have been destroyed.
I don`t know how long Atlas kept the Bussey name going -but as it was a pretty respected brand with a long history they most probably used it until they, in turn, shut up shop .
If I do find out more I`ll add an update.