The British Biscuit Tin is a delightful example of art in commerce, which enjoyed its heyday between 1868 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
Biscuits* and bread were baked at home for centuries. Then a combination of improved transport which made their distribution easier, rising wealth which enabled people to buy such luxuries as biscuits, and a method of preserving the biscuits, the “tins”, brought about a revolution. Within a few decades the majority of biscuits baked came from factories and were sold in shops. Unless they are kept in airtight containers biscuits soon go soft. By chance a new form of packaging was at hand; tin plate boxes. These tins very basic at first gradually become colorful and eye catching. Although examples of decorated tin ware are known to exist before 1868, the advent of the Biscuit Tin by British manufacturers* signaled a new era in decorative packaging.
The original tins represent some of the earliest known point-of-sale material and curiously whereas the tins themselves became synonymous with their content, they seldom displayed advertising mentioning the word “biscuit”. Apart from performing the obvious function of biscuit packaging, many of the tins had an “after-use” as containers for something other than biscuits. Men stored their tobacco and miscellany in them, ladies their needles/thread and the like. After 1900 tins were made to appeal to children and remained in the nursery to serve as toys.
The biscuit manufacturers* who commissioned these tins realized that not only was there a necessity for packaging their products in a most highly attractive and original way, but also, they had to appeal to a broad spectrum of the British public with all its class barriers and idiosyncrasies. Often the thinking behind individual designs would be linked to juvenile themes and contemporary events. Royal happenings, in view of their universal appeal, were extremely popular.
The interpretation of the individual design through the various printing processes represents a minor history of printing in itself and, indeed, offset lithography evolved out of the necessity to “offset” an image on a tinplate sheet.
Somewhere in the region of 40,000 different biscuit tins were designed for manufacture in Great Britain between 1868 and 1939. For that period they represent a unique record not only of past fashions, artistic styles and events but also serve as a pointer to changing social attitudes. As they were mass produced to appeal to the public, they mirror once a year (for new tins were conceived for the annual Christmas trade) the changes taking place in the British class structure in the late Victorian and Edwardian times.
Today at the beginning of the 21st Century traditional British Biscuit Tins, as representative of a by-gone era, are once again popular as collectibles. Due to present economic conditions it is very unlikely that manufacturers will ever again concern themselves with the inventiveness and quality demanded to produce the early tins.
Portals Ltd is delighted to be able to offer a number of fine examples of these beautiful yet simple pieces.
*Biscuits in Great Britain are cookies in the United States
*Manufacturers of Tins:
Hudson Scott & Sons, Carlisle C.1799
Barringer Wallis & Manners, Mansfield C.1889
Messrs. Barclay & Fry, London C.1875
Huntley, Boorne & Stevens, Reading C.1831
E.T.Gee & Sons, Liverpool C.1886
*Manufacturers of Biscuits:
Meredith & Drew, London 1835 to present day (U.B.)
William Crawford & Son, Edinburgh 1813 to present day (U.B.)
McVitie & Price, Edinburgh 1840 to present day (U.B.)
Peek, Frean & Co. London 1857 to present day (A.B.)
Huntley & Palmers, Reading 1822 to present day (A.B.)
Macfarlane, Lang & Co., Glasgow 1817 to present day (U.B.)
Carr & Co., Carlisle 831 to present day (U.B.)
W. & R. Jacob & Co., Dublin & Liverpool 1851 to present day (A.B.)
Co-Operative Wholesale Society, Manchester 1873 to present day
MacKenzie & MacKenzie, Edinburgh 1868-1911
(U.B.) belongs to United Biscuits Group, (A.B.) belongs to Associated Biscuit Group
Courtesy: “Decorated Biscuit Tins” by Peter R.G. Hornsby
“British Biscuit Tins 1868-1939” by M.J. Franklin
MONOGRAPH 