M. L. Magneto Syndicate Ltd was a lighting, starting and ignition business owned by Smiths. Smiths was a British engineering company involved in wide-ranging specialty engineering activities and later became Smith's Industries. Magneto Syndicate was eventually sold to Joseph Lucas as part of a general trading agreement. See - http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/M._L._Magneto_Syndicate

Thank you so much for this, Ian. I like the Magneto Synidcate's line: 'At you service after the War' referring to WW1. The information that the bowl was manufactured for this company came with the PHS's documentation. Have you any thoughts on why BIP would make it for them. Could it be as a promotional object? I see that the company was sold to Joseph Lucas Ltd in 1930. Would you date the bowl to before or after that?

It may have been a promotional item. I have seen another so it is not unique. It may date from the early 1930s, as it is similar to this Bandalasta bowl that dates from 1927, - photo from http://www.applecroft.co.uk/bandalasta/catalogue.htm

Follow the trail on the 10 Most Wanted website: http://10most.org.uk/artefact/octagonal-bowl

We've done really well with this one but we still need to know for sure that it was sold in the Beatl shop. The history of Beatl and Beetle and Bandalasta products is very complicated. Can anyone unravel it for us?

Wonderful, Ian Ralph has written as follows: I would like to make the following observations from the comments already made and from two primary sources namely the bandalasta website http://www.applecroft.co.uk/bandalasta/ and from the book ‘The Story of B.I.P. by Cyril S Dingley 1962/63. I also refer to a personal collection of ‘Bakelite’ items. Firstly I have two similar bowls to yours/MODIPs by ML but in different colour ways, so my belief is that your bowl is not a promotional item… I have also seen others for sale on ebay. Additionally, I have two other different designs of bowl by ML in the same colourway as your bowl! Both of these designs are illustrated in two colour adverts for the Beatl shop in Regent street and both of the adverts can be viewed on the bandalasta website. The first of these ads is dated April 23 1930/Punch or the London Charivari same colourway bowl by ML and the second advert is for the same magazine but dated December 18 1929… this advert shows a bowl by ML in orange but I can confirm I have the same design of bowl in the same colourway as your bowl. This almost certainly implies that your bowl as a design dates from at least 1929 and was likely sold in the Beatl shop. I am also aware of four other octagonal bowl manufacturers although one of them is in ‘Bakelite’/brown/phenol formaldehyde by Linsden Ware. I have to question your belief that your bowl was manufactured by BIP for ML. When considering the information supplied by Ian Holdsworth regarding ML - Magneto Syndicate Ltd in conjunction with the information on the bandalasta website regarding ML it would seem that as manufacturers of automotive parts they were probably using phenol formaldehyde/Bakelite as a moulding material for its electrical insulation and heat resisting qualities. With the subsequent invention of urea formaldehyde by the British Cyanides Company in 1925, I like to believe ML decided to expand their portfolio as a moulding company into housewares… perhaps also to reduce any risk that their new owners Smiths might pose. So why would BIP have manufactured the bowl for ML. Perhaps more importantly, on reading the above mention book it states that BIP did not exist before 1936 as it was previously the British Cyanides Company… so when considering your ML bowl and the other two bowls in the same colourway and as depicted in the Beatl adverts, the advert dates are much earlier than the existence of BIP. If you have not read the above mentioned book, I strongly recommend it because a number of key historical facts full into place... it may ‘shed some light’ on your question concerning Beetle, Beatl and Bandalasta. Also covers acquisition of Streetly manufacturing and moulding of the ‘Beetleware’ range of products for Woolworths! Another interesting observation concerning ML is to do with their logo/product inscriptions. I am aware of three different product inscriptions. The one depicted on your bowl I consider to be dated between the other two. There is a much simpler more modern version and there is what I believe to be an older version… I have an old Urea ‘tennis cup and saucer’ which carries an ML logo identical to the one shown in the ML Magneto Syndicate Ltd advert supplied by Ian Holdsworth… additionally it says ‘Made of Beatl at Coventry England’… again this implies that ML moulded their own products, not BIP. ' He has supplied images and they will appear on the blog shortly.

More from Ian Ralph about the problem of finding who designed this bowl: 'With regard to finding the designer, I am sure you appreciate this might be difficult or even not relevant. You know that with BIP, Woodfull is credited as designer as well as another individual I understand. In the case of Brookes and Adams it is the owner/director/partner. However some companies themselves take the overall credit especially if there is more than one individual designer or perhaps a design team... it would be interesting to look at a few ML items to see if the same moulding details are incorporated because this might imply the same person as designer or otherwise the presence of a design 'styling code' for the detail! I'm just having the thought... wouldn't it be amazing to find some original manufacturing drawings with the designers name on! Probably more chance of winning the lottery.'