During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Colchester Master (and possibly other models) was supplied by the then well-known machinery dealers Selson disguised as the "Osborne". As usual, with this sort of "trickery", the seller simple arranged for a batch of easily-changed castings (in this case the changewheel guard) to be made up with some invented name.
Selson, established in 1871, were British with many overseas branches, especially in the colonies). From early in the 20th century they were mainly importers, agents and distributors who handled a very wide variety of machine tools. Although they never undertook manufacturing themselves, their enormous buying power enabled them to commission batches of machines, complete with a Selson badge, or an invented name, cast into the main structure or, more often, into an easily-changed part, for sale exclusively by themselves.
Although their large, well-produced and hard-bound catalogues contained pages where the maker was clearly displayed, many had machines where any reference was missing, even to having nameplates and logos obliterated (often crudely) from the printing block
During the 1950s, the Company was acquired by the 600 Group, itself a merger of various interests of the long-established George Cohen, Sons and Company.
Other important machine-tool companies acquired included:
Colchester Lathes 1954
Gamet Products Ltd. maker of high-precision bearings 1956
Midgley and Sutcliffe Ltd. 1954
F. Burnerd & Co. chuck maker 1953
Richmond Machine Tool Co. Ltd.1963
W. E. Sykes gear machinery 1966
Typical examples of Selson-badged machine tools include Volman and Robot.