Vintage advertising (Steel signs)

Although first used in the manufacture of coloured metal panels for buildings, the process of fusing coloured glass to iron plates, known as vitreous enamelling, patented in England in the 1870s,

This was soon turned to the production of brilliantly coloured enamelled iron plates, advertising all manner of products, ranging from groceries, newspapers and tobacco, to bicycles and motor cars.

 By the start of the First World War, almost every small shop in Great Britain would have had a colourful display of permanent advertising signs on its external walls, with slogans proclaiming the properties of the goods they advertised, such as: 'Cadbury's Cocoa, Absolutely Pure, Therefore Best', 'Robin Starch, Does not Stick to the Iron', 'Stephens' Mucilage, Sticks Quickly', and 'Hudson's Soap, Powerful, Easy & Safe'.

The onset of the Second World War saw the decline of this advertising medium, as the primary need for steel was in industry supporting Britain's war effort

 This, together with the adoption of the less durable American style paper posters on hoardings, effectively marked the demise of the enamel advertising sign in Britain.

The signs shown on this blog were photographed at transport / industrial heritage sites 

For photographs please 

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Food

Brooke Bond & Company was founded by Arthur Brooke 

. He opened his first tea shop in 1869 at 23 Market Street, Manchester.

 Arthur Brooke chose the name because it was his 'bond' to customers to provide a quality tea, hence Brooke Bond.

 The firm expanded into wholesale tea sales in the 1870s.

Bovril is the trademarked name of a thick, salty meat extract, developed in the 1870s by John Lawson Johnston and sold in a distinctive, bulbous jar. It is made in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire

Rowntree's was founded in York in 1862 by Henry Isaac Rowntree

 who bought a chocolate company from the Tuke family.

 In 1869, he was joined by his brother, the philanthropist Joseph Rowntree.

 The original factory was in the centre of the City of York, by the River Ouse at Tanners Moat, but was relocated in 1906 to Haxby Road in the north of the City.

Corona was a brand of carbonated beverage available in the United Kingdom

 and produced by Corona Soft Drinks. 

The firm was created by Rhondda grocers William Thomas and William Evans

 The company's first factory was based in Porth, and eventually the company had 87 depots.

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Tizer is a red-coloured soft drink sold in the United Kingdom. The name originally comes from the phrase 'Tizer the Appetizer'. 

It was launched in 1924 by Fred Pickup of Manchester when it was known as 'Pickup's Appetizer'.

In 1824, John Cadbury began selling tea, coffee, and drinking chocolate, which he produced himself, at Bull Street in Birmingham, England.

 John Cadbury later moved into the production of a variety of cocoas and drinking chocolates being manufactured from a factory in Crooked Lane, supplying mainly to the wealthy due to the high cost of manufacture at this time.

 During this time a partnership was struck between John Cadbury and his brother Benjamin. At this time the company was known as 'Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham'

Spratt's was the world's first large-scale manufacturer of dog biscuits.

 Its "Meat Fibrine Dog Cake" was the brainchild of American entrepreneur James Spratt who launched the biscuit in London circa 1860.

  Spratt's pioneered the concept of animal life stages with appropriate foods for each stage. The company successfully promoted their array of products for dogs and other domestic animals through the astute use of snob appeal.

 The company was the first to erect a billboard in London.

Virol Trade name for a vitamin preparation based on malt extract.

Given to children as a food supplement 

Henry Palethorpe was born in 1829 in the Black Country.

 Setting up business as a butcher in Birmingham in the 1850s, he realised that the United States was flooding the United Kingdom market with cheap bacon and pork.

Palethorpe decided to move into value-added meat processing products, specialising in sausages, with which he had success. 

The company moved to Tipton in 1896, claiming at the time to be the world's largest sausage producer

. The company expanded during World War I, supplying canned meat products to the British Army.

Tobacco

                                                    

Household Goods

                                             Travel Poster

 Railway Posters

      

                   

                   

 Wartime Posters