Gettin’ ‘Round To It

One of a series of Nyal point-of-sale display cards of the early 1950s. A series of them turned up for grabs at auction, but whether they were all by Roundhill or some were done by another artist in the series – remains unconfirmed. Certainly this highly airbrushed style was a trademark of his, as we know.

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I have had a very busy year, so obviously I’ve had little time to put up new stories for the most part. I haven’t posted anything since February, my bad – and the time has just slipped away. Even my page on Facebook, History Always Repeats, has slowed down quite a bit (although the membership is increasing rapidly anyway). My previous semester was totally frustrating and as a result mentally exhausting (mostly due to the complete disorganization of others) and after it was done I just didn’t want to know about anything for a while.
This is the first time I have had a break since late 2010 when I started Longwhitekid – so perhaps it’s just a natural progression; that’s how it feels. I’ve written at least 175 stories during that time including magazine articles which is quite a lot. A rest is always good – even if it’s unexpected. And this break from publishing was not at all planned, however when I return in a few weeks there will be some big changes afoot.

So it’s probably all part of an inevitable reboot that has been coming for a while, anyway. Things just need to change about the way I am doing this if it is to continue. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been researching and writing; but arranging the actual posts is a lot of work in its self and my focus is elsewhere right now as I finish up on the manuscript, that I have mentioned on and off for the last four years. So the Longwhitekid project is far from over; I am still enthused and have a long list of topics I’d like to tackle.

In the meantime here is a collection of further images by Bernard Roundhill that have come into my possession (this is not all of them, just a portion from this most prolific designer which keep turning up, or I suddenly realise after years – that something I’ve had all along is by him). The original article, which has been incredibly well received, was ‘Unblemished Record’ and can be found here. And I hate to blow my own horn but it is the definitive article on him (although Richard Wolfe’s one was pretty good).  I have also updated fifteen or so other past stories – although there is still lots to do in this respect. This will have to be adequate for now.

Sweet Little Lies: The Curious Sally Lunn
I’ve added an advert from a Pahiatua 1950s publication which sheds more light on the timeline of this sweet treat’s history in Aotearoa.

Elbe’s Ice Cream: The Plot Thickens
I am in receipt of family photos including pictures of the brand’s proponent, Fred Elbe (Jr.), so we finally get to see what he looked like – as opposed to his Dad – which was the best I could do at the time of publishing.

Bite Size: Piccin’ Bones
An earlier popping corn on the market, named ‘Fun’, may have had some bearing on the background of this brand.

A Frosty Phenomenon
I’ve added some boxes that have been kindly lent to me from Hocken collection by ephemera librarian Katherine Milburn.

We Bring The Flavour
An image has come to light of an Uncle’s branch on Queen Street, Auckland, as well as a better picture of paper Cola cups by Carton Specialties.

When Lactose Goes
I’ve added a few boxes and adverts as well as images of two cream cans that flesh out the story of this brand somewhat.

Bite Size: Frisco Candy Kitchen
I came into a lot of extra information on photographer and confectioner Swales, which clarified this story. So I have rewritten it a bit. Oh, and there’s a nice colour postcard of K Road showing his store.

Bite Size: Beats Me
A paper wrapper from an Australian ‘Beatall’ tin raises some questions about Nestlé’s potential involvement in this brand.

Bite Size: Cruel Candy
I’ve added six Allen’s wrapper designs for different lines, which I remember being on the market through the 1980s.

Somewhat Wireless, But Not Brainless
A ‘Safety First’ board game appeared recently featuring the character (whose name I had wrong) so I have made adjustments to images to reflect this,  and added some more.

Iced VoVos: Who Did It First?
Two rarely seen adverts from 1960 featuring this iconic biscuit cropped up so I decided to add them to this story for posterity, although it still doesn’t shed any light on the historical mystery.

Projecting The Past
I’ve added more images of Wattie’s pea can novelty promotional lighters. I still love this collection as I consider it one of the best lots I’ve ever snagged from a Trade Me auction.

Coupon Conquest
An advert for a swap club advert from a newspaper changes the way I’ve been looking at these fundraisers thus far. Many more versions of these swap sets have also turned up lately in the Hocken collection and at auction, yet some particular swaps from more common competition sets remain totally elusive to date.

Native Talent
A yet unseen 1937 book by A.W..B. Powell turned up at auction a while back, so I have included it here. Did this man ever release a book with an ugly cover? Nope, apparently not.

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Those pears are undeniable: A can label for Thompson & Hills’s ‘OAK’ brand Bartletts, probably dating from the late 1950s-early 1960s. Image courtesy Mike Davidson collection.

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A large point-of-sale display card advert for Persil dating from the late 1940s to early 1950s. I’m actually a little confused about what’s going on here with these two. Anyone? 

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L: A label for the H.L. Koefoed brand of chutney. This was probably their last gasp in the 1960s; they’d been around making sauces for eighty years at least by this point. Included is goop which is fifty year old condiment. I’ll pass, thanks.
R: The second, later version of the ‘Bycroft Boy’ with the trademark ‘Droste effect’ or, formally ‘mise en abyme‘ which was also a feature of the earlier version by Leslie Bertram Rykers in the 1920s. 

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Ward’s ‘Cargill’ brand whole tinned rabbit, made between 1936 and 1955. Image courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library collection, ref Eph-A-MEAT-1940s-01. Artist is unknown but we can assume it is Roundhill’s work.

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I always wondered what the unspecified ‘Monarch’ was exactly, in Roundhill’s list of known jobs. I had decided that, being a rather common name, it was either shoes, smallgoods or irons. However it turns out it was a line of pea seeds under a long-term client of Roundhill’s; Yates. This advert from the  New Zealand Herald, September 1940. Image courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand.

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‘Girl Skating’, magazine cover probably for The Mirror, Bernard Roundhill, 1951. Image courtesy of The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collection, reg no CA000660/001/0005. It’s good to see more items from their extensive collection of Roundhill’s work finally going up online in recent months. 

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Original design for OAK meat pie packaging, by Bernard Roundhill, 1959. However, it clearly says Butland’s Crest Foods on the artwork.  It was likely done just post the Unilever ownership changeover in this year when they expanded the product range. Both Crest and OAK were longstanding clients. However I have no evidence the latter ever made pies. Image courtesy of The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collection, reg no CA000663/001/0002

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Six different soft drink labels created by Roundhill for C.L. Innes & Co in the mid-1950s. Several more are in The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collection here, including the ‘Jaffajuice’ one. 

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Nyal’s Figsen laxative display unit, for Frederick Stearns and Co, manufacturing chemist, with a point-of-sale display card from a series probably by Bernard Roundhill. Photo by Clifton Firth, 1950s. Image Courtesy of  Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries Heritage Images, ref 34-S502.

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A series of Nyal point-of-sale display cards of the early 1950s. A series of them turned up at auction, but whether they were all by Roundhill or some were done by another artist in the series – remains unconfirmed. 

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A Peter the Pilot album of 1939 by Timaru Milling. It’s said Roundhill created the character and illustrated him, at least to start with; however there is now some debate whether he or Carr, another employee at Coulls Somerville Wilkie, came up with it. Certainly Carr worked on the account in the 1940s through to the 1950s and some of the early Peter Pilot stuff looks like his style more than Roundhill’s – there’s always been a question mark hanging over it. That said, early days and developing skills, I guess.

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The Highlander milk can label, with the classic design by Roundhill in his typical dark blue linework, remained in use for decades. I really should have included this with the original article; it is along with the Air New Zealand koru, and the Teachatot box one of the images by him completely ingrained in the consciousness of many Kiwis – and as such one of the consummate iconic works of his large oeuvre. 

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A card point-of-sale display by Chandler and Co from a series of lithographs done for Palmolive-Colgate  products, probably by Roundhill, circa late 1940s-early 1950s. It’s possible Bernard Roundhill worked for Chandler when he moved to Auckland around 1946; he was known to have worked for a now unknown advertising concern for a short time, before striking out on his own. However which business that was exactly has been lost to time.

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All content of Longwhitekid copyright Darian Zam © 2015. All rights reserved.

Done Its Dash

A mysterious find is this unassembled box for household detergent powder. Was it a printer’s proof for a product that never actually launched?

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I like this time of the year because inevitably, one or two people visit and bring me a suitcase from New Zealand of the accumulated crap I’ve bought at online auction. It’s a big ask – but for some reason they agree to do this because my insanity…I mean…enthusiasm is so inspiring. Yeah, that’s it. Enthusiasm. It’s really catchy, like a communicable disease.

Actually, regardless of what time of the year it happens – it’s like my own Christmas. So, first off the rank is a recent purchase; an unmade box for Dash detergent under the Scrubb’s brand – which was originally British and primarily successful in New Zealand under license for their cloudy ammonia for quite a number of decades.

Not only a great design, but quite a curiosity, I thought. It’s hard to tell if this was rescued from a manufactory and so never run through a machine and die-cut into a box – or if it was a printer’s proof for a product that never made it to fruition. I’m edging towards the latter, given that I’ve never seen a single example of product or advertising for Dash in Aotearoa (not that I’m claiming to know or have seen anywhere near everything). If this is so – it would make it an extremely rare item, and one I am pleased to say I snapped up at an absolute bargain at just a couple of bucks with zero interest from any other collectors.

It may not have got off the ground down under – however Dash was very successful overseas and this brand is actually still going today, being one of the leading laundry detergents made by Procter & Gamble in the U.S. Even the design is effectively the same – now primarily blue rather than the green of my version. Actually at this time in America the main scheme for the packaging was red with a bit of blue. I get the feeling they may have adjusted the colour scheme to make it more closely resemble two of the New Zealand brands of the time who had the majority of the market share – Rinso and Persil. Here’s an old American Dash advert from 1962:

Dingy:”what needs adjustin’ is yaw detoigint.”

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Records show that The P&G Company registered Dash as a trademark in New Zealand in 1958-1959 (no mention of Scrubb’s, or the manufacturer, or even distributor on file in connection). The fact it’s under (the very appropriately named) Scrubb’s could indicate that the English base acquired the American rights to manufacture and distribute the Dash brand in their jurisdiction. However since P&G registered the rights themselves I’d say that the (proposed) manufacturer, Christchurch-based A.C. Nottingham & Son, made the decision to slot the washing powder under an already successful brand to piggyback off it’s good sales and reputation.

A. C Nottingham & Son was established by Arthur Charles Nottingham  (1860-1929). His son Robert Hilary Nottingham (1897-1974, the obviously favoured of Arthur’s impressive number of twenty children) was admitted as his partner in July of 1920. Arthur had a varied career in England, Australia and New Zealand before establishing himself as an agent – and by the early 1900s his client roster included Speight’s Ales, Penfold’s wines, The Royal as well as the British Foreign & Marine insurance companies, Perrier Champagne, Sanderson’s whisky, and Jeyes’ disinfectant and sheep dip.

American advert for Dash with one of my all-time favourite models Peggy Moffatt, June 1967. During this period, the box design was primarily red with a little blue.

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As time went on the Nottingham business came to specialise in household cleaners and the like – both the aforementioned Scrubb’s ammonia, and Jeyes’ Fluid (the latter still available) were staples of household cleanliness down under from at least the 1920s onwards. In fact the Nottinghams really went to town with the Jeyes’ brand producing toilet soap, sanitary animal powder, horticultural wash, and Cyllin throat pastilles and lozenges in the 1920s, as well as shaving cream.
Then in the 1950s the introduction of Jeypine disinfectant was a huge success, in fact I think it was around well into the 1980s in original and lavender versions as far as I remember – and may even still be going today. I also have a recently-acquired advert for Chalet of the late 1960s, a foil-wrapped process Swiss, showing that there was more to this company than a narrow cleaning product genre. They also dabbled in tea (the Kalana brand) and took a stab at pet products with soap for dogs in the Twenties, Fisolene paint products in the Fifties, and toilet paper again under the Jeyes’ brand in the 1970s.

Two adverts for Camfosa disinfectant: On the L shows that Smallbone and Nottingham had a strong business relationship in this one from the Woman’s Weekly, Feb 1962. Image on n R from the Evening Post, Feb 1925, courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand. 

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However the Dash detergent endeavour was not the first time they had worked with W. & R. Smallbone – who were based in Wellington but with branches dotted around the country including, of course, Christchurch. Smallbone had also been for quite some time distributors for Nottingham’s other incredibly popular product “Clever Mary” cleanser which was present from at least the 1910s through the 1960s, and A.C. Nottingham had manufactured Camfosa for them in the 1960s, which I will get to shortly. So the history of these companies were intertwined as well as parallel, something I wasn’t aware of until now.

Smallbone were better known as manufacturers in later years rather than handling the products of others, however Walter Smallbone (1862-1941), like Nottingham, had also started out as an agent and importer in the 1880s in Wellington. Of course this story was bound to come back to food – he handled Hudson’s biscuits and confectionery but it turns out he had also had a stint as manager of the Wellington branch of Hudson’s for a time. Smallbone also represented products from Thistle (McFarlane’s line of jams and canned foods), Suchard Chocolates, Household Delight washing cream for laundry, Robertson’s Golden Shred marmalade, Tiger Tea, I.X.L. borax and extract of soap, and Flag (The Hayward Bros lines of sauces and pickles).

Coincidentally this week I also acquired evidence for a product that I never would have guessed Nottingham branched into: cheese. This Chalet advert from  NZ Woman magazine, November 1968 .

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The R. Smallbone part of the equation was Reginald Edward (1876-1961) who had the majority of his career on the sea. At one time he was superintending engineer for Sanford Limited, a major seafood business still operating (yet another food connection) and was rather good friends with the owners – so both brothers were very well connected in the industry with some major players.

At some point Smallbone had moved from simply representing – to actual manufacturing – and were behind Camfosa, a very successful disinfectant (and soap) from the 1920s for at least five decades. Dry-Bright polish was a brand of the 1950s. (Bon Brushes Ltd also had a brand of polish called Bon’s Dry-Bright so it’s likely that Smallbone, perhaps with Nottingham’s involvement, had a finger in the pie of this Christchurch based business or perhaps even owned it at some time). Smallbone produced their own self-named cloudy ammonia in the Sixties as well as Liksopyne disinfectant and Sprayforma room freshener. They manufactured the Vincents brand of powders and pills, and acted as agents for much in demand Quickshine floor and furniture polish.

A variety of Smallbone and Nottingham products: From L Clever Mary (poss late 1950s), Scrubb’s ammonia  bottle (poss 1950s), Camfosa (1950s), Jeyes’ Fluid bottle (poss early 1960s), Clever mary (poss early 1960s), Jeyes’ Fluid bottle (poss early 1960s).

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Not satisfied with household products, they became owners of the franchise for Renault Cars from 1961-1967. Renault’s Dauphine models were assembled by Todd Motors’ Petone, Wellington plant under contract to Smallbone. This may appear quite a departure but seemingly the Smallbone family had other business interests in car dealerships, maintenance and car parts. The succeeding director, one of Walter’s children, N.R. Smallbone – passed away in 1969 – and it seems that Smallbone wound down in the early to mid 1970s. Nottingham seem to have been around until the early-mid 1980s (don’t quote me on that).

I believe that this box dates from the very early 1960s when, P&G, looking for someone “to take care of things” domestically, handed it over to Nottingham with Smallbone handling distribution. There’s no further mention of it so it may have been stalled or been short-lived in a market crowded with other products like Lux, Velvet, Laundrine, Taniwha, GHB, Waxine, Suds, Jet, Sunlight, Surf, St. Mungo, Rawleigh’s and of course Reckitt & Colman and Lever Brothers brands.

Nottingham’s Jeypine (in later decades adjusted to Jey Pine) disinfectant produced under the British Jeyes’ license, in a poster of the 1950s.

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Addendum early Now 2015: This unusual bulk tin for Jeyes Fluid by A.C. Nottingham, recently appeared at auction. I’d estimate it dates from the 1970s. 

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All content of Longwhitekid copyright Darian Zam © 2014. All rights reserved.