SOME INFORMATION ABOUT NAYLOR’s PAINTS
FROM THE FILES OF ICI PAINTS DIVISION
Naylor Bros. was founded in 1781, by Joseph Naylor, a painter, glazier and colourman in James Street, Manchester Square, London, W1; the varnish making was carried out at Belle Isle, King’s Cross. There is a tale that Joseph was first induced to make a varnish by a French varnish maker who fled from France at the time of the French Revolution. But it is more likely that he was a carriage builder who first made varnishes for his own trade, and who afterwards found that making varnishes was more profitable than making carriages.
Joseph Naylor died in 1821, leaving two sons, Joseph and Thomas. Joseph survived his father only two years, but his widow (its unclear if the widow was that of Joseph Sr. or Jr.), Mary, carried on the business, first as ‘Naylor Brothers”, and from 1837 to 1848 as Ms “Mary Naylor & Son”. The son was William Naylor who had established works at Southall, was a Councillor of Paddington and had been Master of the Painter Stainers Company of the City of London. When he died in 1894, the business was carried on by his two sons from a second marriage, William Ernest and Henry Spencer Naylor.
Their father had lent them £1,700 as capital in business, but this seems to have been insufficient as from 1886 to 1898 the firm was known as ‘Naylor Brothers and Quick, Varnish, Colour and Paint Manufacturers and Wood Stain Makers’. There is no evidence that Quick was any more than a sleeping partner whose only function was to provide ready money. By 1906 the office and its staff of eight had moved to 407 Oxford Street, the depot remaining at 14 James Street. The firm had a high reputation for first-class varnishes. In 1907 they decided to manufacture interior house varnishes. Their export trade was in carriage and, later, automotive varnishes of the highest quality.
By 1914, Lionel Naylor, son of William Naylor, had made several world tours, and Naylor’s varnishes found their way to Austria, Hungary, the Levant, India and Burma. During the First World War both the home and the export business suffered from restrictions, with exports being reduced to a mere trickle. To keep the firm in business during the war, Henry Naylor realised they needed a chemist to formulate those special products for which raw material licences could be got. He took on H.H.Morgan in 1916 and as a result of his efforts produced a number of new products that kept the firm going during the difficult period after the end of the war. At the end of 1919, Naylor Brothers (London) Ltd. moved to Slough, on the site now occupied by ICI Paints.
The firm got into considerable difficulties in the early 1920s under the managing directorship of S.E. George who decided to take it into the wallpaper business. This was a disaster. Fortunately, at about the same time, Nobel Chemical Finishes became interested in Naylor Bros because of H.H. Morgan, one of the few chemists of any standing then employed in the paint industry, and on 29 July, 1926 a preliminary agreement for Nobel Chemical Finishes to acquire Naylor Bros was signed. In December 1926 the combined Nobel Chemical Finishes and Naylor Bros management, distribution and selling were concentrated at Slough. A Demonstration Centre was also opened at 327A High Road, Chiswick, W.4. This was closed in 1928 and a Technical Service Station opened at Slough.
How or when Nobel Chemical Finishes became part of ICI is not explained in the papers they sent me.
Corroborative evidence about the early Naylors comes from one document I have, (page 3 of Paper 3 in my transcriptions). This is some jottings of Lionels on a piece of paper titled “Inscriptions on my Grandfather’s Grave”. These say his great grandfather died in 1856 (this would be Joseph) and his great grandmother in 1868 (presumably the widow Mary): that his grandfather was born in 1807 and died in 1893 (not 1894 as the ICI paper states); this would be William, buried in Kensall Green. He adds that William Naylor’s first wife died in 1868 and his second in 1889. This tallies with the ICI paper that he had two wives. The inscription on the tombstone includes ‘Mary Naylor, widow, died 19 April 1868’. The second wife, Emma Mary, according to the Kent family tree that I have, was a Kent, second child of John James Kent, who lived at Paddington Green. What I now need to do is explore where Joseph Naylor came from.
Put into a family tree it looks something like this:
Joseph Naylor d.1821
___________________+______________________
+
Joseph = Mary Thomas
d.1823 +
+
+
William = (1) Mary
b.1807
d.1893
= (2) Emma Mary Kent
+
+
_________________________________________________________________
Emily Maud Alice Godwin William Ernest Henry Spencer Evelyn
b.185- b.185- b.4 Jan 1857 b.? Mary
m.Daniell m.Andrews m.Nina Medley m.? b.?
m.Agnew
Online References to Naylor Paints
Intellectual Property Office – Dulux
Slough History Online – ICI
Graces Guides – Nobel, Naylor Bros
PRA – History