A R C H I V E

Item 750 of 2719

Genuine original Sunlight soap in vintage packaging

SKU: CU-2546-19

Genuine original Sunlight soap in vintage packaging

  • Manufacturer: Unilever
  • Date of manufacture: since 1930

Description
Yellow box with the name 'SUNLIGHT' in white letters on a blue background. Underneath the word 'zeep' or 'savon' (soap) is printed in white letters on a red rectangle, depending on the Dutch or French side. The manual is written on both sides in both languages.

Sunlight is the oldest brand of multinational Unilever. After the First World War it was by far the best-selling soap. 

The soap is inextricably linked to the washing of textiles. The bar of soap was usually chopped on the washboard and put in the soapy water and then the textile wax was stirred with a pestle. The soap was also pressed into a soap beater to make a soap solution.

This is hardly ever done anymore today. The soap is now used for washing hands. Or because of the fresh scent in the linen cupboard. Sometimes also for stains or to put it under the sheets against muscle cramps.

Many older people still remember how they used to be washed in the sink bath with this soap with a washboard. There are people who think back nostalgically, but also people who have almost suffered a trauma. This is because of the hard hand of mother. Naked, they were waiting for Mama to put a bucket of warm water in a sink and put the Sunlight soap into a beater and toss it through the water because it had to foam.

Condition
This soap with packaging is still in a very neat and usable condition. Still smells wonderfully fresh!

Dimensions

  • Height: 4.4 cm.
  • Length: 15.8 cm.
  • Width: 6.9 cm.

Attention! price is per piece. Multiple in stock!
Select the desired amount.


Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by brothers William Hesketh Lever (1851–1925) and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson. In 1930, Lever Brothers merged with Margarine Unie to form Unilever.

Starting with a small grocery business begun by his father, William Lever and his brother James entered the soap business in 1885 by buying a small soap works in Warrington. The brothers teamed up with a Bolton chemist, William Hough Watson, who became an early business partner. Watson invented the process which resulted in a new soap, using glycerin and vegetable oils such as palm oil, rather than tallow. The resulting soap was a good, free-lathering soap, at first named Honey Soap then later named "Sunlight Soap". Production reached 450 tons per week by 1888. Larger premises were built on marshes at Bromborough Pool on the Wirral Peninsula at what became Port Sunlight. Though the company was named Lever Brothers, William Lever's brother and co-director James never took a major part in running the business. He fell ill in 1895, probably as a result of diabetes, and resigned his directorship two years later.

Lever Brothers entered the United States market in 1895, with a small New York City sales office. In 1898, it bought a soap manufacturer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Curtis Davis Company, moved its U.S. headquarters to Cambridge, and started production at a factory located at what is now Technology Square. By 1929, Lever Brothers employed 1000 workers in Cambridge, and 1400 nationwide, making it the third-largest soap manufacturer in the U.S. In 1949, it moved its headquarters and laboratories to Park Avenue, New York, and in 1959, it closed the Cambridge factory.

Lever Brothers was one of several British companies that took an interest in the welfare of its British employees. The model village of Port Sunlight was developed between 1888 and 1914 adjoining the soap factory to accommodate the company's staff in good quality housing, with high architectural standards and many community facilities.


Some translations come from an automated system and may contain errors.

Country of origin
Belgium

Kind of object
Soap in packaging

Theme
Sunlight soap

Category
Curiosities

Color
Yellow - blue - red

Manufacturer
Unilever

Brand
Sunlight soap

Material
Cardboard - soap

Particularities
Soap in original packaging - two pieces

Era
Since 1930s

Quality
Good condition

Height
4,40 cm

Lenght
15,80 cm

Width
6,90 cm

Shipping method
Parcel post with track & trace

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