Vander was a distinguished name in the silver trade in London (Culme, 1987¹). Cornelius Joshua Vanderpump (1837-1904), a silversmith, launched the business in 1886 (when he shortened his name).  Cornelius’s son, Henry (1871-1942) and Alfred (1878-1939), continued the family firm at Betterton Street. In the interwar period, Vander’s developed Sheffield connections and became the agent for John Sanderson & Son Ltd. In 1930, C. J. Vander became a private limited company in Fetter Lane, dealing in silver and antiques, such as Sheffield Plate. 

Vander’s began to rely upon Sheffield silverware firms for volume production. In 1958, this led to Vanders purchasing the table silver dies and patterns of Atkin Bros, when that firm was liquidated.  The equipment was installed in the factory of Frank Cobb.  Other acquisitions included Roberts & Belk, where Vander’s built a new factory that employed 150 workers; the Sheffield works of Mappin & Webb; Benton Bros (casters), and William Bush & Son (silversmiths, Denby Street). 

In 1996, C. J. Vander was bought by the American silver group Syratech Corporation, based in Boston.  But Vander was sold in 2003, prior to Syratech’s bankruptcy.  In Sheffield a management buyout resurrected Vander’s operations as Premier-Ware, a silverware group that employed about thirty workers at Vander House, Starn Hill Close, Ecclesfield.  By 2007, that enterprise, too, had foundered. In 2013, Catherine (Kate) Jennifer Vanderpump acquired the name ‘C. J. Vander Ltd’ and became the fifth generation of the family to register a silver mark at the London Assay Office.

^1. Culme, John, The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Jewellers and Allied Traders 1838-1914 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2 vols, 1987)