Brooke’s Monkey Brand Bars & Print

Brooke’s Monkey Brand Bars & Print

2 x Cake/Bar Brooke’s Monkey Brand. Dimensions; 65 x 40 x 40 mm Approx

Framed original printed advertisement, dated April 25 1900, The Graphic. Good condition as kept behind glass, frame has been crudely mended at some point, can ship without frame if required.

Dimensions Frame 30 x 40mm Approx. Print 24 x 37mm Approx.

(From Wikipedia)

Monkey Brand soap was introduced in the 1880s in cake/bar form in the United States and United Kingdom as a household scouring and polishing soap.

Initially, Benjamin Brooke & Co Ltd, a firm owned by Sidney and Henry Gross, had produced the soap in Philadelphia. The soap’s highly abrasive agent was probably pumice.

Lever Brothers bought the company in January 1899 and transferred the production of Monkey Brand soap to Port Sunlight near Liverpool. The name ‘Benjamin Brooke’ (hence Brooke’s Monkey Brand) was retained to promote the Monkey Brand soap on both sides of the Atlantic.

The advertising campaign for Monkey Brand soap was used by cultural historians for analysing Victorian values and social attitudes at the intersection of race, gender and class.