Sweets Gallery

Selfridges, London - Confectionery Section

Selfridges & Co, Oxford Street, London - Confectionery Section. Founded by American-born retail magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858 - 1947), the Flagship store in Oxford Street was opened in 1909. Selfridge was an innovator in the fields of marketing and advertising, creating a complete shopping environment of enjoyment as opposed to mere functionality. The perfume section was placed front centre (still in evidence in every department store today), merchandise was placed on open display and the store was backed with direct and widely-visible advertising campaigns. This set of cards is a fine example! The London store was designed by Daniel Burnham

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Princess Mary gift tin

Princess Mary gift tin, with sweets, for non-smokers, 1914.Printed on inner sweet block: ?Her Royal Highness The Princess Mary Christmas Fund 1914?.Associated with World War One (1914-1918).Indian and British troops serving on the Western Front in 1914 received Princess Mary boxes from the Royal Family. These were metal cases engraved with an outline of the princess and filled with chocolates, sweets, cigarettes and tobacco. Great efforts were made to distribute the gifts in time for Christmas, and huge demands were made on an already stretched postal service. More than 355, 000 boxes were successfully delivered before 25 December. The boxes also included a picture card of Queen Mary and a copy of George V's greeting to the troops which stated May God protect you and bring you safely home?. Date: 1914

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library

New Year's Gifts

A boy in dragoon uniform scrabbles for sweets under his father's legs, while a baby plays with a puppet on his mother's lap. A black servant boy prays for a gift at left. Children, adolescents, girls of 15 and 16, servants and poor wretches, all show happy smiling faces on the first of the year. Half the world becomes, a this time, dependent on the other. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangere's Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817. A boy in dragoon uniform scrabbles for sweets under his father's legs, while a baby plays with a puppet on his mother's lap. A black servant boy prays for a gift at left. Children, adolescents, girls of 15 and 16, servants and poor wretches, all show happy smiling faces on the first of the year. Half the world becomes, a this time, dependent on the other. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangere's Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans