Broom binders and brush makers have had to work hard in previous centuries and anyone who is a little handy can work within the family. In the Achterhoek it is the only means of subsistence for some, so production has to be done.
Around 1885 Aalten has eight brush-making families. Customers in that period include department stores, municipalities and especially the textile industry that are booming in Twente and the Achterhoek.
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A textile factory in Oldenzaal is craving brooms – the Lurvink family archive
Aalten brush dynasty
The story of the Lurvink brush dynasty (now Luva) starts with the three sons of tailor Jan Lurvink. They each start their own brush factory that fully relies on family members. The oldest cash book documents from the family archive are from 1851.
Bernardus, son of Henricus Bernardus, sees an opportunity in 1876 to merge the three companies. He is then a second generation brushmaker in the family and the first known address of the company is Hogestraat 175 in Aalten, bought for 960 guilders. In 1913 the company ‘Bernardus Lurvink and sons’ was registered at that address with the Arnhem Chamber of Commerce.
The current owner checks the archive in the commercial building:
“These are the oldest books we still have in our house. This is a cash book from 1866 ‘.
A good customer in the years after 1900 turned out to be ‘merchant in mats’ S. Scheffer from Zutphen. In January 1911 he paid with a check of 31.53 guilders a delivery of, among other things, 72 street brooms, eight room brooms and six tugs (scrub broom).
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Fragment cash book – archive of the Lurvink family
‘Boss brush maker’
Bernardus is registered as a brushmaker with his eldest sons in the Aalten population register. Father Lurvink also has the word ‘boss’ in addition to his profession. Martinus Johannes Josephus becomes the successor of the sons. He has 11 children, of whom Gerhardus (with two brothers) is already the fourth generation who works with brushes and brooms. He is the grandfather of the current owner.
‘I made the choice to work here all by myself. It was not like my father’s time, when you were really expected to do that. ‘
From handicraft to real brush industry
Martin’s father was born in 1945 and two years later the company M.J.J. Lurvink registered as a company. The old-fashioned handicraft is already largely history and the machines take over the use of hair and fibers.
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Advertising for factory toffees – Lurvink family archive
The hair (ponytail and pig bristles) came in the early years from local farmers and slaughterhouses, Chinese bristles were imported just like coconut fiber. The plastic broom is also slowly making its appearance. In the 1960s, the company moved to an industrial property on the Tweede Broekdijk due to growing demand (there are still two brush makers left). Martin Sr. has owned the factory since 1991.
‘In the old days at my father’s house we were really counting the amount of hairs that fit in one hole of a broom. It was really poured into us. ‘
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Martin Lurvink sr as a young man in the brush factory – photo archive of the Lurvink family
Today, the more than 170-year-old company is called Luva Borstelfabriek and mainly Dutch customers are served as hardware stores, chain stores, painters and technical wholesalers. Martin Lurvink jr. Joined the business in 2009 at the age of 24 and suddenly became director with responsibility for a large group of employees due to the premature death of his father. Uncle Frans Lurvink (production manager) helps him find his niche as an old hand in the brush business.
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Martin senior and junior at the unveiling of the new logo in 1995 – photo archive of the Lurvink family
The company is now fully automated. Parts for brushes and brooms come from the Netherlands and abroad such as Brazil and Sri Lanka (where a Luva factory with 160 employees runs on machines that were previously used in Aalten). The company building from the 1960s has now been expanded considerably with a large hall with storage and forwarding. It employs 25 people, 10 of whom have a disability.
‘If you don’t enjoy your work, it won’t be a success either. Here we all work very closely together, and in this way everyone finds their own place in society ‘.
Whether the seventh generation Lurvink (son Joris must still be 1 year old) ‘goes into the brushes’ again remains to be seen. But the demand for the Aaltense brushes and brooms will remain for a few more decades.
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