Wednesday 25 November 2015

Exotic packaging: Crabtree & Evelyn Swiss Alpine Flowers and Glycerine Soap




Glycerine soap was really fashionable when my mother bought this packet.
Strange how the oddest things have their moments in the limelight. 

Friday 20 November 2015

Exotic Packaging: London Bus Kit Kat

This is Kit Kat's version of a London bus.
Kit Kat is a chocolate covered wafer bar currently produced by Nestlé.
In this tin there were several normal Kit Kats and also some chunky Kit Kats.

This bus was produced in 2015 but some of the passengers look a little bit out of date. Surely Londoners (or indeed other residents of the UK) don't wear hats like that? Not since the 1950s.

The kit kat name goes back the 18th century when it meant a mutton pie served at the Kit-Cat Club.
A bit different from a chocolate wafer.
The pies were named for the pie-house keeper Christopher (Kit) Catt.
Hence Kit-Cat or various other spellings. 
The Kit-Cat Club had strong political, Whig (later Liberal), and literary associations.

The Kit-Cat Club also gave its name to a style of portrait: less than half length but including the hands. 
Sir Godfrey Kneller (a member of the club) was commissioned to paint members of the club in this style. 
He painted 48 portraits.

A proper Routemaster bus has an id number above the front wheel. And here Nestlé have inserted N35TL3.
Which reads as Nestlé if you want. A nice and carefully considered detail.

Thursday 19 November 2015

Exotic Packaging: Potter & Moore Scented Geranium


The scented geraniums are quite difficult to spot on this pretty packaging. What you mostly see are pansies and sweet peas. There are roses too, and a butterfly - or is it a moth?
I wonder if Potter & Moore used this same design for sweet pea soap and rose bath grains? I don't remember.

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Paper Bags: Under the Golden Gate

 
A beautiful soft paper bag brought from San Francisco this week by the Dutch taste tester.
Very handsome indeed. Sadly not mine to keep.

Thursday 5 November 2015

Exotic Packaging: Crabtree & Evelyn Tomato Soap


I remember this soap because not only is the packaging lovely, but the soap itself was tomato-shaped. Brilliant.