Category:Harbutt

Harbutt

1897 -

1939: The Harbutt's Plasticine stand at the British Industries Fair ("BIF") in early 1939 (or late 1938?) [image info]

1956: Harbutt's for Brightest Colours", "Roman City" wax crayons (probably a reference to the company's location in Bath) and "Little Artist" chalks [image info]

1963: Harbutt's Plasticine 1lb pack [image info]

Harbutt's Plasticine Limited ("HPL") was born out of William Harbutt's perfection in 1897 of Plasticine, a non-drying alternative to modelling clay.

Harbutt immediately started promoting the new material with advertising and a supporting book, and is supposed to have been granted a patent for the new material in in 1899.

After originally making small batches in his basement. Harbutt moved production to a proper factory site at the old mill in Grange, High Street, Bathampton.

The Plasticine business

Harbutt's business expanded internationally and the Harbutt's range started to include character tie sets for Disney creations and Enid Byton's Noddy.

William Harbutt died from getting a chill in 1921 during a foreign demonstration tour, and left behind a large family who then ran the business.

The factory was accidentally burned down by a contractor in the winter of 1962/1963, but with an in-demand product and a great deal of goodwill from other businesses, the company rebounded very quickly.

May and Harrison (2009) write that although the Plasticine business was sound, some family members had decided that they wanted to do more and diversified the company into other products that weren't as successful. Resulting losses caused the company to be sold to Berwick-Timpo in around 1976, and, since the core business was still fine, the company continued to be run as an effectively-independent profitable concern. Berwick-Timpo themselves then went under in 1983. The 1983 liquidation of Berwick-Timpo resulted in Peterpan Playthings owning Harbutts, and the new owner decided to produce Plasticine themselves, closing the Bathampton factory in the Spring of 1983.

The local management were prepared to takeover the business and were required by Price Waterhouse the receivers to submit a sealed bid to buy the business, which failed.
During my tenure as first as Sales Director and then Managing Director we were approached by Peter Lord and David Sproxton [Aardman Animations Limited] two young former university students who asked if they could have some Plasticine for their animation project. My then Creative Director Stuart Fiddes had the company permission to let them have 1 kg blocks and at the same time were producing some Tony Hart [Vision On - Take Hart - Hartbeat] creative sets featuring Morph which Peter and David developed.

— , Richard Body,

Products

Art/marking products

Acorn weather-resistant marking crayons
Little Artist chalks
Plasticine
Roman City wax crayons
Novlart / Colour Stencilart / Easyart stencil art packs

Other products

Morell's Inks, Chalks, Pastes and Sealing Wax – distribution had been taken over by Harbutt's by 1939
Plastone self-hardening modelling clay
Plasticine Dartboards (!)

Replicars plastic snap-together car kits

Law

The company briefly made case law with "Plasticine" Ltd v Wayne Tank and Pump Co Ltd, in which it successfully got damages from a contractor despite a limiting clause in their contract. The contractor was apparently employed to install a piping conduit system for hot wax, decided to use plastic pipes, installed a faulty thermostat, and then switched on the system at night to test it, without supervision. The overheated hot wax melted through the plastic pipes, flooding the factory with molten wax, and then (predictably), caught fire, the resulting ultra-fierce blaze utterly destroying the factory and factory building.

Although "breach of condition" arguably undermined a contract by depriving one party of the advantages that the contract was supposed to ensure, Denning's new concept of "fundamental breach" went further ... a contract was supposed to provide benefits to both parties, and since Harbutts had received none of the advantages meant to derive from the contract (possessing neither the contracted piping or their own factory), and also suffered serious harm from the defendant's behaviour, that the defendant could not hide behind "limitations" clauses in the contract to avoid being sued. WTPC's contract to build a piping system did not protect them from liability from multiple layers of negligence that resulted in the destruction of their client's factory. The defendant had done the work, but had not been able to hand the work over to Harbutts. This new concept of "fundamental breach" was not generally considered to be good law, and did not "stick".

Addresses

Harbutt's Plasticine Limited – 3 Bathampton, Bath (~1916)
Harbutt's Plasticine Limited – 99 Bathampton, Bath
Harbutt's Plasticine Limited – 79 Bathampton, Bath
- London Office and Showrooms – 56 Ludgate Hill, London EC4

External links and sources

William Harbutt, Harbutt's plastic method: and the use of plasticine in the arts of writing, drawing, & modelling in educational work (Chapman & Hall, 1897)
James May with Ian Harrison, James May's Toy Stories (Conway, 2009) ISBN 9781844861071 "PLASTCINE", pages 10-49