When you decide to start a tin collection, you might be surprised to find yourself inside the world of antique and vintage advertising and lithography. A vast category of collectibles that includes anything from biscuit tins to posters and cereal boxes. It can so easily lead to distraction.
If your heart is set on collecting antique tins, your search will begin with exploring all the different kinds and styles of tins available. Your biggest challenge will be homing in on a style or category that inspires you. Here is a partial list of some antique and vintage advertising tins worth collecting:
- British biscuit tins
- Candy tins
- Tobacco, snuff and cigar tins
- Puzzle tins
- Watch tins
- Band-Aid tins
- Medicinal tins
- First Aid tins
- Car wax tins
- Car oil tins
- Miniature tins
- Tea caddies and tins
- Coffee tins
- Spice tins
- Food tins
- Cosmetic tins
- Commemorative tins
- Anniversary tins
- Promotional tins
From this list, you can see why tin collecting is such a popular and worthwhile pursuit.
Advertising Tins Date Back To The 1800s
In the Victoria era, tin was used by many manufacturers to package and safely ship their goods. These tins were generally covered with printed labels using lithography to advertise brand names and product descriptions.
Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder, a Bavarian author, in 1796. It was chiefly used to print theatre posters. But by 1870, manufacturers had perfected a way to use lithography to transfer graphics onto tin and metal. Suppliers of goods took advantage of this opportunity. Not only did the tin containers and canisters keep food fresh and germ-free, they offered a great way to advertise goods.
By 1916, after the automobile had started to change modern life, the first supermarkets were built in the U.S. This opened up a whole new way of shopping for groceries. Manufacturers set to work and designed brightly decorated and branded tin containers using recognizable logos and graphics to entice customers to buy their products. These same designs are exactly what attracts collectors to vintage and antique advertising tins today.
The Biscuit Tin May Have Started It All
Advertising tins dating from 1920 to 1960 remain some of the most collectible today. But if you go farther back to Victorian times when the import and export market was really taking off, you’ll find that decorated or advertising tins existed long before the 20th Century. And the biscuit tin just might have started it all.
The History of Huntley & Palmers
In 1822, a baker by the name of Thomas Huntley set up shop on a busy street in the town of Reading, England. Every day travellers on their way to London would stop by and purchase his delicious biscuits, and some even wanted to buy these cookies in bulk to take home to their family and friends. As word got out, more and more people wanted to buy Huntley’s biscuits and orders came flooding in from all parts of the country.
As it happened, Huntley’s son Joseph was an ironmonger and the ideal person to craft some biscuit tins to keep the biscuits safe and fresh during shipment. So began the Huntley, Boorne & Stevens partnership and in 1932, the first decorative biscuit tins were created.
By 1841, demand for Huntley’s biscuits was out-growing the size of his small bakery. So the baker decided to recruit the help of his distant Quaker cousin George Palmer to expand and build his business.
In 1846, Huntley & Palmers moved the bakery to a large biscuit factory on the Kings Road. Over the next 50 years, production grew and the famous Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins were being shipped all over the world. By the 1900s, they became the world’s largest biscuit manufacturer, employing more than 5000 people in the ‘biscuit town’ of Reading.
Not only did Huntley & Palmers become famous for their biscuits, they were also celebrated for their innovative and decorative biscuits tins. In the Reading Museum, you can find more than 7000 items relating to the history of Huntley & Palmers, including biscuit tins, photographs, oral histories, films and advertising ephemera dating from 1822 to the 1980s.
Ben George 1868 Tin
This particular tin is designed by leading Victorian designer Owen Jones and is a good example of the intricacy used in each design. It is an early design of a Huntley & Palmers biscuit tin before lithography, using a transfer process patented by Ben George. The rectangular shape was adopted to accommodate the railway cargo hold that shipped Huntley & Palmers biscuits. It was not uncommon for biscuit tins to feature the royal coat-of-arms as the monarchy were Huntley & Palmers’ most exclusive customer.
Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee 1887
Royal commemorative tins made regular appearances throughout the years for the Huntley & Palmers biscuit company. On this royal occasion, Queen Victoria takes centre stage on the lid of the tin, flanked by scenery of the royal residences Balmoral, Osborne House and Windsor Castle. This is an example of a small tin using the offset litho process.
Specialty Small Tin 1870s
Specialty Smalls consisted of a whole series of small rectangular lithography tins produced from 1870 to 1890. Each tin had oval corners and featured the royal coat-of-arms and elaborately patterned sides. The Huntley & Palmers stamp appears on the base and their motif on the sides.
Egyptian Casket 1890
From 1882 to 1922, Egypt and the Suez Canal was under occupation by the British Army. Huntley & Palmers began to produce biscuit tins like this one in a casket shape with colourful Egyptian scenery and a coloured base. This tin shape was used again in 1892 for the Christmas Casket Swan biscuit tin.
Playmates Biscuit Tin 1897
Huntley & Palmers were known for designing intricately shaped tins like this one called Playmates from 1897. To create a design like this was an expensive and painstaking job, requiring years of skill and expertise to perfect and only added to the appeal and value of the Huntley & Palmers tins.
The playmates of this tin are a bunch of mischievous cats and dogs playing. Illustrated in the fashion of Beatrix Potter, one side of the tin shows three playful kittens, while on the opposite side is a similar scene featuring puppies. The puppies and kittens meet for a tug-of-war contest on the lid. So charming. The same tin shape was used for several tins from the late 1890s like the Marquetry and Rural tins.
The Mexico 1895
Another example of an intricately shaped tin with decorative scenery is the Mexico tin from 1895. The skilful and elaborate craftsmanship that goes into such a design contrasts the square or circular tins that became popular after the Second World War. Two other tin designs were made in this shape, the Harmony tin in 1893 and the Algeria tin in 1894.
Book Tins – The Waverley 1903
Besides their intricate designs and shapes, colourful patterns and scenery, Huntley & Palmers loved a motif and created a delightful assortment of themed biscuit tins like their Book Tins. The Waverley looks just like a collection of eight bound books by Sir Walter Scott, and is the third in the series. The Book Tin series was one of the most popular and featured 10 different designs. From 1900 to 1924, more than 650,000 Book Tins were produced.
The Globe 1906
Novelty tins in all shapes and sizes were extremely popular. It was not uncommon to find empty Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins decorating the shelves of most homes at the time. As the British Empire spread to the shores of Africa, Americas, and the Far East in the 1900s, Huntley & Palmers biscuits became a global sensation. The Globe biscuit tin created in 1906 showed the countries of the British Empire marked in red on the tin.
The Grandfather Clock 1929
Produced from 1929 to 1932, this tin depicts a miniature lacquered chinoiserie grandfather clock. An expensive and ornate tin used for special occasions, it features a clock face with moving hands and mixed wine-flavoured biscuits.
Motor Van 1937-1939
This carefully shaped and crafted motor van tin doubles as a children’s toy as the wheels really work. Complete with Huntley & Palmers advertising for Breakfast Biscuits and Ginger Nuts on the sides, these toy tins were hugely popular.
Huntley & Palmers enjoyed many years at their Reading location before moving to Liverpool in 1976. They were eventually bought out by Nabisco in 1982.