British Biscuit Tins, Part I
By Donna C. Kaonis

Collectors of strictly American tins are loath to admit it, but British biscuit tins have a lot going for them. Clever designs and shapes that look like anything but canisters for holding biscuits, they have enormous crossover appeal for collectors in many areas.

Commercial food packaging took slightly divergent paths in our two countries. In America early biscuit makers sold their products out of barrels or large display tins. When individual commercial packaging became commonplace, the emphasis was on inexpensive waxed paper wrapping which kept the overall price down.

Overseas the market for "biscuits," the English term for cookies, was essentially the middle and upper classes, a large market judging from all those afternoon teas. Initially biscuits were sold in simple, undecorated tins, but by the 1870s decorated tins were becoming popular. The designs and shapes grew increasingly complex and by the 1890s, tins often mirrored real-life objects. They kept the biscuits fresh, and then remained in the home as attractive decorative accessories, or as toys for those tins designed with children in mind. For collectors there is an endless array to choose from and competition has been heating up, especially for the transportation of toy biscuit tins.

Byron Fink has been collecting biscuit tins since 1985 when he purchased the "Bluebird", modeled after a popular line of pottery known as Martinware. Already a collector of paintings, pottery, ceramics, art glass, fruit crate labels and virtually whatever else took his fancy, the time was ripe for a new collection. A year went by before he bought another biscuit tin, then suddenly an even dozen came his way in one fell swoop, and at that point, "I felt like I really had a collection," says Byron.

Today his Philadelphia residence is home to nearly four hundred biscuit tins and related "go-withs" and the biggest challenge he faces is finding additional shelf and wall space. "Most people exclaim 'Wow!' when they walk in," says Byron. "The second comment is usually, 'who dusts all this?' and on a return visit, they often ask me if something they had missed previously is new. I guess it's difficult to take it in all at once."

The wit, style and attention-to-detail of British biscuit tins are what attracts him. For the most part, American tins were not made with a secondary use in mind and shapes were fairly standardized. There are some notable exceptions of course, including tins styled as pails, lunch boxes and the delightful tobacco Roly Poly's. British tin manufacturers on the other hand clearly had a field day. Almost anything that existed in real life could be used as a model for a biscuit tin. Designs for the tins came from the biscuit companies or from the tin-making companies that often had large art departments. Although the tins shown here are masquerading as other objects, that is not to say that all British biscuit tins were representational in nature. A great many are recognizable as tins, but the workmanship is extraordinary. Embossing and elaborate designs, even tin that simulates leather, wood, wickerwork and snakeskin was used.

Byron enjoys setting up interesting groupings of related tins and he sometimes adds clever props-- a miniature violin that neatly fits into a nine-inch tin violin case, a tiny tea set atop a biscuit bureau. He limits his collecting to tins marked with the biscuit company's name, occasionally including an irresistible non British tin such as the Tindeco Roly Polys and the trompe l'oeil "stack of plates" by Lefevre-Utile.


British Biscuit Tins, Part I was excerpted from Collectors’ Eye magazine, a full color magazine dealing with popular antiques and collectibles. Visit www.collectorseye.com. Readers may also contact Byron Fink at 215-923-9749.