A R C H I V E

Item 435 of 2719

Vintage tin drum Mackintosh's Quality Street chocolates & toffees

SKU: BT-2922-20

Vintage tin drum Mackintosh's Quality Street chocolates & toffees.

  • Producer: John Mackintosh
  • Date of manufacture: 1987

Description
Large round tin for Mackintosh's Quality Street toffees, fitted with a loose lid from 1987. The decoration of this tin consists of a white background with purple and pink details. On the lid an image of a soldier in costume and a young lady. On the side of the tin a self-repeating panorama of the lady and soldier on a carriage with horse in an English street. Also decorated with the text "Mackintosh's Quality Street".

The origins of the lady and soldier who have shaped the image of Mackintosh's chocolate toffees for decades is surprising. They are in fact characters from a play called "Quality Street". This piece was written by J.M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan. Apparently, the play inspired the sweet makers of Mackintosh so much that they named their then-new product directly after it.

Condition
This Mackintosh Quality Street candy box is in an original vintage condition with traces of use and age-related traces of wear. Dents in the lid and bottom. Photos are part of the description.

Size

  • Height: 14.5 cm.
  • Diameter: 23 cm.

Quality Street is a selection of individual tinned or boxed toffees, chocolates and sweets, first manufactured by Mackintosh's in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, in 1936. It was named after J. M. Barrie's play Quality Street.

In 1890 John Mackintosh and his wife opened a shop in Halifax, where they created a new kind of sweet by mixing hard toffee with runny caramel. These toffees were made from inexpensive local ingredients such as milk, sugar beets and eggs. They were so successful that in 1898 they expanded the operation to build the world's first toffee factory. It burned down in 1909 so John bought an old carpet factory and converted it into a new facility. When John Mackintosh died, his son Harold inherited the business and in 1936 he invented Quality Street. The name was inspired by a play of the same name by J. M. Barrie.


In the early 1930s, only the wealthy could afford boxed chocolates made from exotic ingredients from around the world with elaborate packaging that often cost as much as the chocolates themselves. Harold Mackintosh set out to produce boxes of chocolates that could be sold at a reasonable price and would, therefore, be available to working-class families. His idea was to cover the different toffees with chocolate and present them in low-cost yet attractive boxes.

Rather than having each piece separated in the box, which would require more costly packaging, Mackintosh decided to have each piece individually wrapped in coloured paper and put into a decorative tin. He also introduced new technology, the world's first twist-wrapping machine, to wrap each chocolate in a distinctive wrapper. By using a tin, instead of a cardboard box, Mackintosh ensured the chocolate aroma burst out as soon as it was opened and the different textures, colours, shapes and sizes of the sweets made opening the tin and consuming its contents a noisy, vibrant experience that the whole family could enjoy.

In the later 1930s, Britain was still feeling the effects of the economic crash and Mackintosh realised that in times of economic hardship and war, people crave nostalgia. Quality Street chocolates were, therefore, packaged in brightly coloured tins featuring two characters wearing Regency era dress, known affectionately as Miss Sweetly and Major Quality, inspired by the principal characters from J.M. Barrie's play. They featured on all Quality Street boxes and tins until 2000. The original models for the pair were Tony and Iris Coles, the children of Sydney Coles who designed the advertising campaign that first appeared on a front-page newspaper advertisement in the Daily Mail on 2 May 1936.

The brand was acquired by Nestlé when they bought Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988.


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

Country of origin
England - Great Britain

Kind of object
Candy tin

Theme
Candy - fudge - drum - can - Quality Street

Category
Vintage blikken

Color
White - purple - pink - multi-colored

Publisher
John Mackintosh

Manufacturer
Nestlé - Rowntree Mackintosh Ltd.

Brand
Mackintosh Quality Street

Material
Tin - metal

Particularities
Loose lid

Era
1987

Quality
Vintage with traces of use

Height
14,50 cm

Diameter
23,00 cm

Shipping method
Parcel post with track & trace

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