The John P. Lovell Arms Co., established 1840, Boston, Mass.

[Mike N]

At a recent FATC Show I picked up what I thought was an unmarked fly reel with hard rubber side plates. A little cleaning disclosed the marking shown below. Any information on the company would be appreciated.

[Mike N]

Here is the “before” photo with no marking evident:

[Stef Duma]

Mike, any idea how the markings were applied on hard rubber. I have seen an English reel but thought it was "iffy" as hard rubber can be brittle.

[Roger Schulz]

Stefan

I have a copy of the 1896-7 catalog. John P. Lovell Arms was a retailer of guns, rifles, revolvers, fishing tackle and sporting goods. Your reel is on page 93. The file is too big to upload.

Roger Schulz

[Steve]

Lovell Arms was probably better known to erstwhile consumers for the Diamond bicycles that they sold. Like Iver Johnson, Wm. Read, Winchester, Spalding, and many others, Lovell sold a variety of "equipments," even if they didn't manufacture everything they sold.

[Ron Mc]

thanks for posting - that was fun

[Mike N]

Steve- any idea of the dates Lovell was in business? 1840- ??

Roger- I would love to get a scanned photo of the cover and the one page of your 1896-97 catalog.

Thanks, all.

Mike N.

[Steve]

That Google search engine helps to answer a lot of questions.
https://www.cornellpubs.com/old-guns/it ... tem_id=447
https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/au ... co-john-p/
https://www.ebay.com/itm/370791494253
And it turns up surprises:
https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/1891- ... -1-safety/

[bamboocollector11]

Lovell was in business until around 1900 when Colonel Ben died and then became part of Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works.

[Mike N]

Lovell was in business until around 1900 when Colonel Ben died and then became part of Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works.

I researched Iver Johnson a bit after your interesting post. I did not find anything about a merger but did see on the Fitchburg, MA website that there was a business relationship between Lovell and Iver Johnson:

“Iver Johnson (1841-1895) was a Norwegian gunsmith who immigrated to Worcester, MA, during the Civil War. He was an inventor and entrepreneur, and was issued and assigned a number of patents for handguns.*** After 1871 he worked in partnership with Martin Bye, buying him out in 1882/3. The firm moved to Fitchburg in 1891/2, becoming the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works in 1894. After Iver's death in 1895 the operation was run by his sons.

The company's goods were marketed through the J. P. Lovell Co. of Boston.”

http://www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us/444/Histo ... hnson-Comp

I’ll keep researching that lead.

A Rock Island Auction blog did note that one of Iver Johnson’s sons had a curious middle name, suggesting some relationship between the two company founders:

“ Ever the entrepreneur, young Iver emigrated to the U.S. ***

Sources dispute when he married Mary Elizabeth Speirs, either 1863 or 1868, but marry her he did and she would eventually bear him three children: Fred John Lovell, Walter O. & Mary Louise.”

[Mike N]

In addition to Boston, the John P. Lovell Arms Co., a Massachusetts corporation, had “stores” in Bangor, ME, Portland, ME, Providence, RI and Pawtucket, RI. A sister company, John P. Lovell, was incorporated in Maine.

In addition to retail outlets, Lovell had a factory in Maine where it manufactured bicycles, but I’ve not see any evidence the company made fishing reels. My best guess, and that of Jim Brown, is that most of the Boston retailers sold reels made by J. Vom Hofe or Thomas Chubb.

The Lovell Arms bicycle factory in Maine:

[Mike N]

I am a big fan of turn-of-the-century manufacturer billheads because of the artwork that tells the story of the company. Here’s Lovell Arms’ letterhead in 1895:

[RonG]