Cleaning Collection

A Complete Wash-out, by William Heath Robinson
The trials of spring-cleaning as endured on the ark. Please note: Credit must appear as Courtesy of the Estate of Mrs J.C.Robinson/Pollinger Ltd/ILN/Mary Evans

DOLLY TUB
A laundry worker using a dolly stock and tub to clean clothes, prior to the invention of the washing machine

Upright Hoover
A mustard yellow Hoover upright vacuum cleaner

Advert, Pullars Dye Works, Perth, Scotland. 1905

Poster advertising Acel chamois leather for cleaning cars, showing a chauffeur in green uniform holding a miniature red car. early 20th century

Electrolux Advert 1927
Two ladies having fun with their ELECTROLUX

Vacuuming a Wireless
Frequent cleaning of a wireless set (radio) can easily be done with use of the spare parts of a Hoover vacuum cleaner

Travelling Charlady
A travelling charlady, up a ladder, cleaning a front door, her motorcycle with its Stop Me For Cleaning, No Job Too Small sign, parked behind her!

Advert / Calverts Carboli
CALVERTs CARBOLIC SOAP for floors

Advertising - Soap - Watson's Matchless Cleanser - Wrapper Competition - Joseph Watson & Sons Ltd. - Have you a stamp please? Date: circa 1909

Advertisement for the Western Electric vacuum cleaner with a women patiently cleaning the carpet around her snoozing husband. Lets hope that cigarette falls into his lap and wakes him up. Date: c.1924

Advert for Daisy vacuum cleaner 1912
Daisy vacuum cleaner, manual vacuum cleaner using suction to remove dirt. 1912

WW2 - Laundry - It ll soon be hanging on the Siegfried Line
WW2 humour - " Two British soldiers doing their laundry comment that " It ll soon be hanging on the Siegfried Line!". Date: circa 1944

Advert for Pears Soap - A Chemist Recommends... 1912
Advertisement for Pears Soap - A Chemist Recommends the product for its pure, genuine, good value and effective properties! Date: 1912

Advert for Follows & Bates winding machines 1900s
Various machines from the late 19th Century early 20th century, advertised in The Ironmonger Diary and Text Book, for Follows & Bates in Manchester. Circa 1900

Thessaloniki, Greece - Bootblack Date: circa 1916

Cub Scouts cleaning fire engine

Big Ben with scaffolding, Palace of Westminster, London, and the musical notes of the chimes given below (in E Major)

1960S Lady & Vacuum
A British housewife poses with Hoover and rag in the centre of her sitting room

Advert / Reckitts Blue
Reckitts Blue - for a sparkling white wash

Queen Mary Ocean Liner, at Southampton
Reaching Southampton the Queen Mary docked in an enormous King George V graving drydock, ready for its maiden voyage to New York in May 1936

Blue and Yellow MACAWS / Blue and Gold macaws - X2 preening (Ara ararauna). Taman Burning Bali Bird Park, Bali Island, Indonesia

Rinso Advert
RINSO washes while you sleep (snore !) - soak the clothes, thats all. (Made by Hudson s)

Vim advertising insert -- A Child Can Use It. circa 1900

Imperial Vacuum Cleaner advertisement, 1914
Advertisement for the Imperial Vacuum Cleaner from The Electric Appliances Company Ltd, claiming it would last a lifetime and offering the chance for a home demonstration of the machine in action

Boy Scouts cleaning street sign, London
Two Boy Scouts cleaning a street sign in Downshire Hill, Hampstead, north-west London during Scout Job Week

Landlady discovers the lodger in the bath
The Lodger was in the bath. A landlady receives a nasty surprise as she comes across the lodger taking a bath

Cleaning Day, by Ethel Parkinson. A little Dutch girl wields a mop, while a little boy kneels down and scrubs the floor

Canada - Ojibwa Girl cleaning the catch
The Ojibwa is the largest group of Native American peoples north of Mexico. They are equally divided between the United States and Canada

Women Window Cleaners
A group of newly trained Georginas set off for their first job, carrying their ladders and buckets. Date: 1940s

Advert / Enameline Polish
ENAMELINE STOVE POLISH for polishing stoves, grates, ranges, etc

Carpet Sweeper
A young housewife using a carpet sweeper

Model Maid-Of-All-Work
The model maid of all work is kept busy in the scullery cleaning boots, boiling kettles and pans, and responding to the bells that are constantly rung for her

Advert, Surbiton and Kingston Laundry, Surrey
Advert, Surbiton and Kingston Laundry, Alfred Road, Spring Grove, Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey Date: 1897

Repair your own fur coat, 1944. Cleaning and repairing your fur coat and your raincoat at home in wartime. Date: 1944

Scrubing Doorstep / 1920S
A Charwoman, who goes to work in her motorcycle and side car, kneels whilst scrubbing the steps of no. 47

Woman washing by David Wright
Beautiful portrait of a woman, possibly the artists wife, Esme, sitting in a small metal bath. Date: c.1948

Dry cleaners
American Gas Appliance Co. Men Cleaning Overcoats

Borwicks Prize Medal Knife Powder
A tin of knife polish

Kolynos Trade Card
Trade card for KOLYNOS dental cream, in the shape of a tube of toothpaste. It is described as cleansing - antiseptic - delicious

A Man Filleting Fish
A man in hat and overcoat fillets fish on a stall

JUSTICE CLEANED UP
Cleaning up British Justice

Cleaners Delivery Van
Achille Serre is THE cleaner for LOndons fashionable crowd, and this is the van in which your gowns and dress suits will be brought to you

Vacuuming Ornaments
A French maidservant vacuums ornaments with LE PROGRESS

Vacuuming Picture
A French maidservant vacuums a picture with LE PROGRESS

Bathing Baby
Two nurses bath a baby

Comic postcard, Woman in expensive underwear chats to cleaning lady Date: 20th century

The Rolls Rapide Twin Tub washing machine - look what you get! A bargain at 39 guineas! Date: 1961

Producing diamonds - infographic by G. H. Davis
How the craftsman reveals the glowing beauty of the diamond: producing alike the world's most popular gem and famous stones such as will be in evidence at the Coronation

Promo card by Lawson Wood for Johnson Brothers
Promotional postcard by Lawson Wood for Johnson Brothers Dyers & Dry Cleaners, 1 Market Buildings, Bridgend - Why Waer a Dirty Raincoat? - Have it Cleaned and Re-proofed

Cleaning the blanks in boiling acid, this occured after they passed the annealing furnace, which gave them the appearance of dirty discs of iron. Date: 1904

Gardening in Japan Date: 1913

Sand seller in front of St Giles Church, London, 1805
Sand seller in front of St Giles Church. In hat, coat, waistcoat, breeches and boots, with wagon of sand, basket and spade. Red sand and white sand was used in cleaning kitchen utensils and floors

The Fountain of the Virgin, Liege, Belgium - Soap advert
Advertising for Sunlight and Starlight Soap featuring The Fountain of the Virgin, Liege, Belgium Date: circa 1904

Advertising - Odol mouthwash - first brought to the market in 1892 by Dresdner entrepreneur Karl August Lingner. Date: 1908

Advertising - Soap - John Knight's Family Health Soap
Advertising - Promotional postcard for John Knight's Family Health Soap - Be healthy and laugh and the World will laugh with you. Date: circa 1905

Blank Returns Postcard - N. K. Fairbank Company Soap Date: 1890s

Advertising - Peerless Erasmic Soap for the Complexion Date: circa 1907

Spain, Catalonia, Vimbodi. Poblet Monastery
Spain, Catalonia, Tarragona province, Vimbodi. Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet

Spain, Madrid. Cleaning the public road after the snowfall. Plaza Mayor, December 12, 1882. Drawing by Juan Comba. Engraving. La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana, December 15, 1882

Spain, Catalonia. Works of the port of Barcelona. The new cleaning train used in the dredging, and the cabria to seat the blocks. Engraving by Vela

Suez Canal. Large dredger type couloir used to clean canal
Egypt. Suez Canal. Large dredger type couloir used to clean the canal. They stood stationary in deep water. Engraving. La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana, 1882

Woman in shoe shine booth Lisbon
Shoe shine booths in a Lisbon Street, Portugal. People sit in the small cabins to have their shoes cleaned and shined Date: 1988

Advert, Spring Cleaning, Hoover Vacuum Cleaner
Advert, Spring Cleaning, Hoover vacuum cleaner Date: 1948

c. 1890 China - Chinese street vendor - barber
c.1890 China - Chinese types and trades - street vendor - barber

Billboard advertisement - Surf Washing Powder
Billboard advertisement on Navigation Street, Birmingham, 12th August 1954 - Surf Washing Powder - Boils Spotless. 1954

Victorian Shoe Shine - Clean Your Boots, Sir? 19th century

Rabbits Wash-Day - Birthday Greetings Postcard Date: 1944

Pittenweem, Fife, beachcomber
Early morning at low tide, and before breakfast the harbourmaster of Pittenweem Harbour, Fife, walks along the harbour beach beachcombing and removing rubbish with his pug dog

Sunlight Soap - cut-out advertising trade card

Comic postcard, Scene in manager's office Date: 20th century

Comic postcard, Window cleaner covers his eyes Date: 20th century

Water Babies by Muriel Dawson
A little girl in in a bath tub makes sure that her dolly is clean too. Date: c.1925

Advertising - Soap - Date: circa 1910s

Sorting and cleaning cotton, St Vincent, Caribbean Date: early 1900s

Sorting and cleaning cotton in St Vincent early 1900s Date: early 1900s

Street Cleaning, Islington, North London

Shoe Black in Bradford

Street cleaning with a dust cart, Islington Vestry, London, early 1900s

Shoe black Date: 19th century

3d off Surf Washing Powder, advertising flyer
3d (three pence) off Surf Washing Powder, advertising flyer in shape of 12-sided threepenny coin Date: 1958

Street cleaning, Standish Street, Burnley, early 1900s

Lighthouse keeper cleaning the lens, Victorian period. Date: late 19th century

Cleaning a Burnley tram, probably 1920s. Date: 1920s

All products are expertly crafted, using premium materials, tailored to your specifications and promptly shipped