Finally, something to post in this thread -
Vintage 'butterscotch' Simpson 46. It is 'pure' badger in the sense of sterilised. A little smaller than I was expecting, I will check dimensions with my other '46' at home tonight and of the pink tinged type butterscotch brushes. Not sure if it will be a keeper or not.
Interestingly it is also marked with 'Cecil Jacobs Leicester' on the back of the handle -
A quick Google finds another brush marked similarly,
here, a Simpson 88 Eagle, but what is odd is that searching 'Cecil Jacobs Leicester' shows that it was incorporated in
1912, and certainly had a store in
60 London Road Leicester, but recent
media coverage of the company liquidation indicate it was a
camera store. However
one story provides some more detail of the history -
'Cecil Jacobs founded the business in 1939 when he opened a chemist shop in Melton Road, Leicester. He started selling cameras in his second shop in the city in the late 1940s.
Jacobs' son joined the company in 1975 and led a change of direction towards his passion for photography.'
Obviously the shaving brushes were sold through the original chemist shop!