its hard to see, but does this have diecast hoops or heavy stamped hoops with a tight furl on the top? .the former would be Beverley and the latter Premier,before they switched both Beverley and Olympic to those very high reverse flange hoops.i'd like to see the shells. the Premier shells of the time were odd sizes. 12's were 11 7/8, 16's were 16 1/2, i have even have one snare on hand right now that is 13 13/16. there was a time after Beverley was bought(1958), that the shells were still Beverley made and conventional sizes----using up existing stock i guess and then the shells became standard odd sized Premier shells and the production switched to the Premier facility. since Premier made 20's, a lot of Beverley 20's came out.-------i am not sure if Beverley made 20 inch bass drums, pre 1958; one would assume so, or perhaps the supply of shells ran out briefly, prior to the transfer to the Premier factory, so the catalogue did not show them. very nice looking kit and i hope it is more up to the Beverley standard , than the subsequent Olympic clone standard that prevailed for about 6 years.

heres a close up of the beverley snare-as you can see the lugs have an indentation on them.

the other sizes are:

rack to 12"

snare 14"

floor tom 16"

the previous owner said his dad bought them in 1959 but that may just be heresay?

have you measured the 12 and 16's carefully. if they are 12" and 16", then they are probably Beverley shells and '59 seems reasonable as a date but if they are 11 7/8" and 16 1/2" then they are Premier shells but still could be '59. I don't know when the Beverley shells ran out and the Premier shells began. The lugs are defenitely , the Premier era lugs.

definately 12 and 16 and double checked, thanks again for all the info

When I was corresponding with John Kaywood about the early days of Beverley, he told me he still had the first Beverely kit and it was in burgundy pearl wrap, he even tried to sell it to me but I unable to raise the cash at the time. :(

thanks mike,

good story do you know what year that beverley was??

The blue oyster kit was originally mine. I had it built as a prototype when I took over the marketing of the Beverley range in early 1960. I found the blue oyster because it was as near as I could get to the ripple the was on the Ludwig that Ringo used.

Yes, it was a 20inch bass drum and the sd hoops are flanged steel and not die-cast as on Premier. You can read the whole story of the early 1960-ish days at Beverley and Premier and how I developed the Cosmic 21 sd nto get a near copy to the Ludwig 400, on Mike Ellis's history pages. Sorry I can't give you a link. But you will find a lot more on the Vintage Drum Forum under the heading of "Let's have your 60's Questions."

Hope the above has been of some help

John Kaywood

Hi John, great to hear from you! Keep on Pl I hope you are well?

Hi Mike,

Very, very good to hear from you. Yes the burgundy kit that I had (and offered to you) was in fact the first kit made in the factory for sale. The blue oyster kit

here was my original prototype. It's amazing it is still in such immaculate condition, judging from the photos. I didn';t sell it privately but it went to one of the dealers (can't remember who) as a demo kit to put in their window. It was supposed to have come back to me, but I never saw it again. Such is life.

Kind regards,

John