Red Fox Heat-Resisting Steels brochure
A marvellous trade brochure issued by the well known Samuel Fox & Co. Ltd. of Stocksbridge, Sheffield, and detailing their range of “Red Fox” heat resistance steels; these were available in various grades such as Austenitic, Martensitic and Ferritic and various forms and finishes including sheet, strip, bar and wire.
The brochure is interesting in that it was issued in 1944, printed at Percy Lund Humphries in Bradford, and is an unusual example of complex high quality colour printing in wartime. The designer is Henri Kay Henrion. Henrion (1914–1990) was another of the German born emigré designers who moved to the UK in the 1930s. In the early years of WW2 he was interned as an ‘enemy alien’ but as can be seen he was working; famously, for the British war effort. Henrion designed much of the “Dig for Britain” campaign run by the Ministry of Information. In post-war years he became art director at the influential Contact Books before in 1951 setting up his own design studios. He had numerous commercial clients and as well as teaching became a noted exhibition designer.
As well as the red fox dominating the cover, the motif is repeated across all pages of the brochure. Judging from the small inconsistencies, at least the two big lines are probably drawn be hand, but closely following the designs of Thorne Shaded and Marina Script. The former originated at Robert Thorne’s Fann Street Foundry in London around 1810 and was revived in 1938 by Stephenson Blake in Sheffield – located just a few miles south of the steel mill. The latter is a Stephenson Blake original, first cast in 1936.
Samuel Fox & Co. Ltd. had been a part of the United Steel Companies since its formation in 1918. Their origins were as wire drawers in 1842 and they turned to the manufacturing of their own steel in time becoming famous for their steel umbrella frames – the mark of a “Fox’s Frame” was for decades the sign of one of the best you could buy. Their works at Stocksbridge became a home to many highly specialised steels and after many changes in ownership and structure the site in South Yorkshire still produces specialist steels. Sadly the manufacture of Fox’s Frames ceased in 1970.
