Biscuit Tins

Description

Advertising and consumer spending among the middle classes expanded rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century. One of many ways of appealing to the new shoppers was packaging, and biscuit tins were a very discreet form of this kind of promotion. Their appeal likes in the artistic quality and detail of their decoration, serving as a travel guide and souvenir, educational aid and plaything. Their design demonstrates a wide knowledge and love of art and is executed with great care and attention to detail, yet their designers mostly remain anonymous.

Tracy Dolphin has been collecting biscuit tins since 1982. She studied the history of design at Brighton Polytechnic, concentrating on the twentieth-century design and architecture, and graduated in 1989. While there, she wrote her dissertation 'Biscuit Tins: Design, Manufacture and Social Contect 1860-1914'.