Created by Carmen Thorley on Wed, 09/11/2019 - 10:47
Description:
"Full title: Double page advertisement for Warren's Blacking Warehouse. Featuring 'Humorous Twelfth-Night Characters'. [from the author's presentation copy of The Life of Dickens, 1872-74]
Warren’s Blacking was a leading manufacturer of shoe-black (shoe-polish) in the 19th century. Available as a liquid in bottles or as a paste in pots, the blacking was ‘sold in every Town in the Kingdom’ as this advertisement boasts. Notoriously, Charles Dickens worked at Warren's Blacking Factory when he was 12 years old, during the period his father was imprisoned for debt. His job was to paste labels onto the blacking pots.
This full-page printed advertisement was probably intended to be used as a poster."