The E. Elliott Limited company began selling their one camera, the V.P. Twin, in 1935 and was established as a private limited company. Founded by Edwin Elliot who was born in Birmingham, England in 1878. He left school at age 14 and started work in a machine shop before going into the jewellery trade, but his eyesight was not good and he moved on to be an office boy at the Birmingham branch of a firm from Hamburg. He learned German at evening class, also with the help of two Austrian friends. In 1903, one of them returned to Austria and Edwin took over his job which was selling imitation jewellery stones.

Then in 1909 Elliott started his own business at 55 Frederick Street, Birmingham as an importer and manufacturer’s agent which included Galalith casein plastics material. adapting to his customer's needs he began manufacturing products like spectacle frames and became an agent for a manufacturer of spectacle lenses and in 1911 he bought them out and developed it into The British Optical Lens Company or BOLCO. Elliot began manufacturing Galalith casein plastics in England just prior to world war I.

In 1916 Elliott moved to larger premises in Warstone Lane, however it too became too small and he moved to Brearley Street. In 1926 he began making molded radio cabinets.

It was in 1933 that Elliot installed the latest injection molding machine, the first of its kind in Britain. Demand for his products grew and he then bought the molding section of Messrs. Harrison (Birmingham) Ltd. in Cheapside and became a private limited company in 1935. It was at this time that the V.P. Twin camera was created and marketed by his British optical lens company. Elliot also molded cameras for Coronet, including the Midget and Vogue. BOLCO sold a self-selection line of spectacles in Woolworth. So it was easy for them to sell the camera to Woolworth's, however Woolworth's had a policy to sell everything for not more than 6d. To accommodate this policy the earliest version of the V.P. Twin was sold in three parts by Woolworth. Each part cost 6d, all three parts together 1s 6d.

During world war II the company was damaged by direct artillery and mostly was destroyed. The salvageable machinery was moved to other locations and the company survived and became a public entity in 1950. The business ended in 1982 when Edwin was Eighty-eight and still working.


V.P. Twin Camera ( Early Model )

V.P. Twin Camera ( Later Model )

REF:
2015 Plastics Historical Society ( https://plastiquarian.com/?page_id=14340 )
2005 McKeowns Price guide to Antique and Classic Cameras. p. 262

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