Smith & Wellstood, Limited

Smith & Wellstood, Limited, American Stove and Range Manufacturers and General Ironfonnders. Works and Foundry, Bonnybridge, N.B.; Head Offices, 11, Dixon Street, Glasgow; London Showrooms and Offices, 11, Ludgate Circus, E.C. ; Dublin Showrooms and Offices, 29, Grafton Street.—

    There is certainly no British firm holding a more notable or representative position in connection with the manufacture of stoves and ranges, embodying the popular American constructive principles, than that of Messrs. Smith & Wellstood, Limited, of Glasgow, London, Dublin, and Bonnybridge. The firm was founded as far back as 1835 by Mr. James Smith, and had its first Glasgow premises in Union Street. In 1862 the business was transferred to its present eligible and more commodious quarters in Dixon Street, comprising a handsome suite of showrooms and offices, occupying a ground floor and two upper flats, each measuring about 150 feet in length by 80 feet wide. The house is now in the hands of its founder’s two younger sons, Messrs. Robert and William Smith, who conduct its affairs with conspicuous capacity and enterprise upon a private limited liability basis, including as shareholders five of their principal managers, under the style of Smith & Wellstood, Limited.

    The firm’s works are situate at Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire. They cover an area of nearly five acres, employ upwards of three hundred hands, possess splendid facilities of transport by rail and canal, and are equipped with all the newest and most effective machinery. The house also controls a fine suite of showrooms at Ludgate Circus, London, and Grafton Street, Dublin, and has stores of especially large capacity at Port Dundas, Glasgow.

    Messrs. Smith & Wellstood, Limited, devote their entire attention to their original lines of activity — the manufacture of American cooking stoves and portable kitchen ranges, warming stoves for church, hall, parlour, office, shop and wareroom use, ship’s galley and yacht stoves, cabin stoves, laundry stoves, Turkish bath stoves, gas and oil cooking and warming stoves, cooking utensils, and portable boilers for dairy, farm, and laundry use. The list of Messrs. Smith & Wellstood’s special manufactures in the classes of goods above mentioned is of a character so voluminous as to quite preclude any detailed review in this brief sketch ; but there is no single item in the long array that does not indicate in many ways the faithful adherence of this eminent house to its first high principle and object, the production of exclusively first-class goods. In manufacture, material, and method of arrangement every article made and supplied by this firm bears distinctly the “hall mark” of merit. The well-arranged catalogue of the house is to be strongly recommended as an excellent index to their exceedingly comprehensive range of specialities.

    Messrs. Smith & Wellstood have gained many eminent medallic honours, notably prize medals at the London, Dublin, Colonial and Indian International Exhibitions ; but perhaps their highest distinction of this nature was achieved at the Society of Arts' Great Stove Competition in London, 1874. At this 204 stoves and ranges by all the eminent constructors and manufacturers were placed in competition and tested by a series of severe trials extending over the whole year. The result gave the highest position for the efficiency and economy of their productions to Messrs. Smith & Wellstood, their stoves being declared by the records of all the trials to be first and best, and theirs, over all other approved apparatus, coming up to and going beyond the principal and required standards of performance upon 25 per cent, less fuel. The trade of the house extends all over the world, and no effort is spared to maintain in the most adequate manner the reputation that has worthily attached to the manufactures of this firm for more than half a century.

Back to Index of Firms (1888)