That’s what I remember too. Sadly the company lost its way.
Yes it was owned privately for along time and then sold off. When I was there we were it, a very small company, but making money. The DeLongchamps sold out and moved on.
It was a great time. Looking back,I would never have known, that the company would be successful, we just worked hard to deliver products.
There was pride in finding unusual and rare tools and the product manager was German and searched for the tools. For many year’s the Brookstone catalog was something many looked forward to.