No records survive of the manufacturing concerns responsible for the Melissa & Regent of London brands of vanities. In these instances the accessories contained with the powder compacts and vanity sets enable us to build up a picture of the history of these delightful mid-century collectibles. Case construction and similarities of lid designs yield further clues. When we liaise with other collectors and specialists we can pool information.
Eleanor and I feel as though it is important to pay tribute to the makers and also say thank you to our customers, many of whom are fellow collectors. We like to create new historical fact packs for each subsequent sale, so that we are not duplicating information when the same customer purchases another piece from the same maker.
During the history of the British firm, known at this time as Stratton Co. Ltd. they were famed for acknowledging important events, most especially royal milestones, by creating vanities that honoured coronations, royal weddings and silver jubilees. This company would produce limited editions to mark very special occurrences in British history.
Without doubt Stratton were the most successful brand of British powder compact. The quality of their enamel was clearly superior to the other British brands at the time. Vintage Stratton accessories are highly collectible today and many have proved to be a good investment. With thanks to the material written by Juliette Edwards in her book The Stratton Identification Key, collectors can say for certain what model is rare, uncommon & common. Coupled with known years of availability it is possible to build a big picture of exactly how rare an item is. Rare Stratton vanities are a study in themselves & in most cases they are rare because of when they were produced. Often the rare models of Stratton compacts...
