Although branded as an HTC, this lathe was manufactured by "Brenco". Retailed through at least one mainstream machinery dealer, H.P. Gregory, of Sydney, although labelled "Brenco" it is not known for certain if this was the manufacturer, an importer or another agent.. However, the same company, originally of  Footscray, Victoria, Australia (an industrial area noted for machine-tool building), may exist today - with very brief details of their history online.
Offered from the late 1940s into the mid-1950s (when such small lathes were in great demand) the HTC/Brenco had a centre height of 23/8" and took around 8 inches between centres. The lathe was designed along lines not dissimilar to early Portass models with a hand-turned, over-hung V-thread leadscrew driving a simple carriage topped by a single swivelling toolslide. However, for such a simple lathe, both the headstock and tailstock casting (the latter looking like a Buck Rogers death-ray pistol) were unusually heavy. The top of the V-edged bed, instead of having separate front and back ways, was machined as a continuous surface - like that on the Myford ML10 and the rather better-class Hardinge HLV. With a gap in the bed, the lathe could swing a disc of metal 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick.
Headstock bearings were the simple, split-parallel type - the spindle running direct in the cast iron of the headstock - and closed down by screws at the back. Although running in the cast iron - and not a bronze bush - while this saved time and money for the maker, it was a common application on lathes of this type and entirely suitable - the free graphite in the iron meaning that such assemblies hardly ever wear out. Thousands of South Bend 9-inch lathes used the system, as did the early Myford ML10. A 3-step pulley was fitted for drive by either a round leather rope or a small V-belt.
While one owner reports that he can find no casting faults in any of the machined surfaces of the bed, the saddle and tool post slides do have several of blow holes.