Advertised just a few times in the English Model Engineer Magazine during 1948, the Keva lathe was built by Keva Engineers Ltd. of 105 Boundary Road, Barking in Essex. Two models were listed: the "B.S.C" a backgeared and screwcutting 3" x 18" type with 3-speed flat-belt pulley drive, faceplate, drive plate and a chuck backplate at £28 and the "PB", again 3" x 18" but plain-turning and equipped with just a compound slide rest, faceplate, drive plate and a chuck backplate at £20. Delivery was quoted at 12 weeks for the "B.S.C. and 8 weeks for the "P.B." - a not unusual situation in those austere, just-post-war times.
As the writer has never seen one of these lathes, nor a photographs, the pictures below may not be of a Keva. However, the specification matches that in the advertisement and the both general style and sparse appearance does hint that it might be from the austere late 1940s
If any reader has a Keva lathe, or knows anything of the Company, the writer would be interested to hear from you.