Ian Holdsworth, of cocktail shaker fame, is taking on this duck. In his own words: 'I thought that the next one of your 10 Most Wanted that I would look at would be the duck clothes brush – an enigmatic object for a number of reasons. I have seen many of them, and in a very wide colour range. Thirty years ago if you went to Camden antiques market pretty much every stall would have one. They always cost a fiver. Nowadays you can find them in 1950s shops, and in good condition they cost twenty to thirty pounds. They must have been made in great numbers, and be fairly indestructible, to be so plentiful. Generally they are fairly well scorned in the antiques trade. Moulded into the base you will find ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’. Moulded into the brush back you will find ‘MADE IN ENGLAND. BRISTLE.’ or sometimes ‘ENGLAND. ALL HAIR’. I don’t think these different markings denote different manufacturers, but rather, I suggest, different periods of manufacture. These rather unaesthetic objects contain a mystery. Moulded into the base, between the duck’s feet, is an egg shaped depression. Many, many people have told me that this is where the egg goes. They say that when the ducks were sold they were sold with an egg that sat in this egg shaped dip. They cannot tell you what the egg did or what it was made of. In fact Pete Ward in his book 'Fantastic Plastic' states ‘A few lucky collectors have the plastic egg which nestled in a hollow in the base.’ I don’t believe Pete Ward. I must have seen hundreds of these ducks but I have never seen an egg. Neither has any antique dealer or specialist plastics dealer that I know ever seen an egg. I think that the egg is a myth. But that does not explain the depression in the base – apart from it being the ubiquitous pin tray. Perhaps putting some of this text up on your site will encourage people to answer this question (especially those that have an egg!). The other mystery about this object is who made it. I have asked a lot of knowledgeable people but no one seems to know – even though it was not that long ago that it was in production. You would have thought that such an ‘innovative’ item would at least have carried a design registration number. The next time I go to the PHS library I will have a look through the 1950s ‘Plastics Trader’ magazines to see if I can find a reference to it. Finally – I always thought this was a product of the 1950s although I have often heard people refer to it as Art Deco (!). I was therefore surprised to find an advertisement for it in the Washington DC newspaper ‘The Spokesman Review’ dated December 4th 1961. The advert presumably shows the brush as you would buy it. It does not show an egg!’ He also sent an image. I hope to upload it soon. It tells us that it sold in the US for 4.95. It doesn’t specify whether that is dollars but if it is that would have been a lot of money. Reference: Ward, P. 1997. Fantastic Plastic. London. Apple Press. ISBN 185076-794-7 Page 32.

Ian Holdsworth is steaming along he’s found the manufacturer. Brilliant stuff. Ian wrote: ‘I have attached photos of a couple of duck shaped clothes brushes with original sales tags. One side of the tag reads; Dandy Duck Clothes Brush, Pure Bristle. Made in England. And on the other side, Made by Versabrush, Slough England. So; Product name - Dandy Duck Clothes Brush Manufacturer – Versabrush.'

More from Ian: 'I'm impressed. One day I send an email saying I could never find out the manufacturer. Next day I send an email saying I found it. Your game made me make the effort to find out something I always kind of wanted to know. And solve the riddle of the egg. I had a chat to Sylvia Katz today about the materials used to make the duck brush. She has several at home and will do some investigation. In the mean time, we think perhaps; base - compression moulded phenol formaldehyde brush back - compression moulded phenol formaldehyde brush handle - wood duck body and feet - injection moulded polythene (?) brush - pig bristle Finding out the actual designer (if there was one) would be a much harder nut to crack. Versabrush as a company seem to have no digital legacy. Slough Local History Online have no company records. There is an American product called Versa Brush used in dentistry, but that is probably just a coincidence. I'll email Slough archive to see if they have anything.'

Dandy Duck! You couldn't make this up. Brilliant!

Ian wrote to Slough Libraries and says: ' I have also heard back from Sabiha Barakat, Enquiry Officer at Slough libraries. They have nothing in any of their archives or collections relating to Versabrush. So unless you get an email from a relative of someone who worked there I don't think that we are ever going to find a specific designer. There probably wasn't one anyway - these things tend to be a company team effort. I would suggest a designation of 'designed and made by Versabrush.'

Ian has been making enquiries about its material: 'I have heard from Sylvia regarding the materials used in the duck brush construction. She has done some testing and suggests cellulose acetate for the handle and polythene for the flexible body, and for the base PVC. She is going to meet Colin Wiliamson soon and will get his opinion. As you know Colin is excellent at this sort of thing.'

Sylvia and Colin have met up and looked very carefully at Dandy Duck. They agreed on Dandy Duck's materials and methods of manfacture: 'Body: injection moulded Low Density Polyethylene Brush: solid injection moulded cellulose acetate and bristle Base: injection moulded flexible PVC' I need to ask about solid injection moulding... will do that.

At one point it was thought that the cellulose acetate might be a skin over a wooden inner. But no, it is made of solid cellulose acetate.

To remind users that interesting material posted here may be copied to www.10most.org.uk or www.modip.ac.uk for posterity.

A nice comment from Ian15.mdx: Came across this in the Moulded Plastics Trader for May 1956. Also made in Slough but by a company called Hughes Brushes Ltd. Perhaps in the mid 1950s Slough was a hot bed of anthropomorphic brush design.

There had to be a reason why it wasn't bombed...

Slough does seem to have been a hotbed of duck brush production. Ian15.mdx has found out that the other side of the label on the blue version of the Dandy featured says it was, like the penguin, also made by Hughes Brushes Ltd and that Hughes Brushes also made brushes in the shape of swans.

'Seems like Dandy Duck was the start of a whole aviary.' writes Ian15.mdx.

I have had an email from Ken Doughty from the Society of Brushmakers. Ken writes ‘I had an email from you (several months ago) about Versabrush. My PC died and I have had to buy a new one. I believe the company may still be in Reading under the name Kersten, who use the Versabrush name for their products. They make self propelled cleaning vehicles’. So I have emailed Kersten to see what they know.