Joseph Fitter
by Göran Nilsson
Below is a Joseph Fitter Thomason king’s screw.
It is certainly a sidewinder. Worm and mechanism is probably correct and
working. The badge is a Fitter badge. The CS has been restored and
polished. So could there be any problems with it? I suggest there are – one
major one.
The Fitters first appeared in the marketplace say 4 years ago – about 3 of
them what I know of. As it seems, after that date the Fitters has not
appeared.
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The Fitter badge cannot be found in any CS reference literature. Strange ! A sudden recovered CS badge, and 3
of them, or could it be a scam? Has someone just swapped the badges and created a Fitter CS? And from where
is the badge. Some historical analyses of Joseph Fitter will give the answer.
Joseph Fitter has existed and he was active in Birmingham end of 1900 century. He made primarily wood items
such as Dining room tables, but also presses and copying equipment. The tables had a distinctive feature called
screw expanders. This device was mounted under the table which expands the table to accommodate additional
leavers. The screw expander consists of a long screw inserted into a long tube nut. On the tube there is a badge –
Joseph Fitter- Patent-Britannia Works- Cheapside, Birmingham. Exactly the same badge as on the corkscrews.
I suggest that it is very likely that some smartass has taken the badge away from the screw expander ( they are
common ) and attached it to Thomasons and sidewinders. Suddenly there is a new badge for collectors. Looking
at the badge on the King screw it is clear that the size of the badge is unproportional to the barrel and thus should
not be there. There is no historical evidence that Fitter made Iron items besides copying equipment and presses.
Analysis of promotion material usually gives a feel for what the shop produced. Corkscrews can not be found on
any promotion material.
My conclusion is that collectors should be awere and don’t be carried away with new corkscrew discoveries without
a proper analysis. In the hunt for new badges it is easy to get carried away – but let the brain think instead of the
corkscrew wallet. Now, even if the seller says " badge never been seen before" and bla bla - the Fitter CS has
clearly been created to deceive the buyer.
I am provocative here so please give me some feedback what you think. Do you think I am wrong please provide
your ideas why I am wrong and I would love to see some evidence or proof that Fitter made CS as well.
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