Doe and Hope

Description

Presenting a large pair of early Jelly and Sweet tins, fashioned from the best British tin plate, the first for Mrs Marshall’s Jellies, with an Art Nouveau influenced design, crafted by Huntley Boorne and Stevens. This is the more desirable of the two, the tin quipping ‘None is genuine unless signed’.

The other is for Waller’s Toffees showing the marks of Waller and Hartley Limited Blackpool, England, and "Every piece a Surprise". The Blackpool tower can be seen on the flank.

Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins were as highly prized as the products they contained and today they are collectors items. From miniature replicas of vehicles to tins that could be re-used as household objects, there were no limits to their ingenuity. However the tins were originally created for a more practical use - the airtight storage of biscuits so that they could be transported to distant customers and stay oven-fresh and unbroken.

Savoury jellies were just as popular as sweet jellies and the high-class cookery books of the nineteenth century are full of artistic dishes based on aspic, like Agnes Marshall’s. These dishes were very time consuming and testify to an age when middle and upper-class kitchens were often generously staffed and well-equipped with specialist moulds.. Mrs Marshall's recipes were aimed at young housewives married to professional men, who though probably well-off, could not afford the extensive kitchen staff found in the great houses. This enterprising lady offered these for sale at her premises in Mortimer St.