The G.B. Kent Story

In the past we G.B Kent & Sons used to make King William IV's toothbrushes, they now hold the Royal Warrant for brushes and are probably best known for their hand-made hairbrushes.

G.B. Kent was founded by William Kent of Barnard Castle in 1777 in the reign of George III. Until the beginning of the last century they made their brushes in London, but for the last eighty-five years or so G.B. Kent have been out at Apsley near Hemel Hempstead, where they now have modern premises. Much of the manufacturing, though, is carried on by hand.

In the earliest days William Kent produced brushes for boot-tops, bitts, hair, cloth, hat and flesh, and exhibited no false modesty in promoting his wares. 'These brushes, which are entirely different to any hitherto offered to the public', said their first advertisement on the front page of The Times, 'are so decidedly superior in principle as to convince at first sight the most incredulous. By their peculiar arrangement they at one action remove the dirt or dandruff and polish the surface, at the same time leaving the most beautiful gloss on the coat that can be imagined.'

George Barton Kent, from whom the company takes its name (G.B Kent), held Queen Victoria's Warrant and ran the business from 1854 to 1900, presiding over a massive expansion in the range of products and the number sold. By the end of the century Kent were making so many bone-handled toothbrushes that they were using the leg bones of 600 bullocks a week.

Alan Cosby, the present Chairman and Managing Director, says that the company is keen to retain 'all the skills and expertise of this traditional art' and we are one of the few companies able to repair ancient family brushes.

An early visitor to their original factory once observed: 'bristles from Russia, Siberia, China and India; badger hair from Germany and the Balkans; whalebone from the Antarctic; fibres from Mexico, Brazil and Africa; beech, cherry, birch and sycamore from the English countryside and tropical timbers, ebony and satinwood from the forests of Ceylon, the West Indies, South America and Indonesia'. There have been some marginal changes since then, but you can see why, in the fine tradition of their original advertisement, they still claim to be 'The World's Finest Brushmaker'.