Blue Plate Special

[Mike Franzen]

I picked up this little reel today because I liked the blue side plates. Couldn't find much on Google. Any info about it would be appreciated. Looks like a Penn to me

[Midway Tommy D]

Mike,
It's a Royce Reel, looks like maybe a 320? but tough to tell from the pic, by Lawrence Mfg: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Royce-290M-Fish ... 542db57943

Ray should be along soon to fill you in on the specifics but until then: search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=lawrence+monospool

[Tightlines666]

It's a Lawerence monospool, US-made Penn copy, from the 1950s era.

[m3040c]

Hello Mike,

You found an old Lawrence. I believe it is a Model 240. Lawrence reels sometimes have the makers name on the tail plate and sometimes not. It is a 1957 reel. Here are some scans from the 1957 Lawrence catalog;


Your reel is in the lower left hand corner of the page.


The Blue side plates are made of Melmac, a popular Bakelite derivative used in the 1950 mostly for dinnerware.

I feel that Lawrence had some kind of agreement with Penn. The reels are very similar.

[Midway Tommy D]

When did they morph into, or maybe out of, the Royce Reel nomen?

[m3040c]

When did they morph into, or maybe out of, the Royce Reel nomen?

Do not know that they ever did. Lawrence ID's their reels differently on the same frames. So both names may exist for the same time period.