All I can gather from what I can read is this is a Wilkinson Sword brush. Sterilzed. Badger Hair. Made in England. 2 is on the bottom of the base. This was lathed, the marks are clearly visible. There were stickers or labels on the ferrule portion of the brush handle, one with a rectangular shape and the other, a diamond shape. Are there any ideas? I did run across one other handle that was very similar to this one, however it was marked with a number 1 on the bottom. Here are some saved images of that one: Any clues would be great!
Well, first off, it's unlikely to be a Wilky brush. The large square is either a price tag label or a manufacturer label. The diamond immediately makes me think "old Gillette logo." I can't make out the words above "made in England," but I doubt they spell out Wilkinson Sword. The hare head logo, to the left of the words isn't anything I've seen associated with Wilkinson either. Chances are this brush, like the Wilkinson brush, is not made by Wilkinson, but rather for Wilkinson or for a retailer like Boots by parties unknown. (Culmak, Roony, Simpson, Vulfix, etc.)
In the first image I do make out Wilkinson Sword, the crossed Swords, and unlike the clearer handle listed as a reference, the "CO.LTD" is "Cº". Here is are a couple of ads from ~1962: I wish they were bigger. It would also be cool to know "who" made these brushes for Wilkinson. My guessitmate was they were from before 1964, when they went public.
It looks like they are likely made by Benwell. I asked the same question on another site and was connected to this brush: There are enough keywords in this thread that someone might easily find the same answer to the same question...