In 1914 Princess Mary, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, decided that she wanted to send a Christmas gift to all British troops on active service on the Western Front. When it was shown to her that she couldn’t afford it, the idea was to have a publicly funded appeal to raise the money to do so which was so successful that, eventually, the gift was given to everyone in the British and Empire armed forces, including nurses. The gifts were presented in a very fetching brass tin and these tins eventually became known as Mary tins.
Now, through a combination of things I have developed an
interest in the First World War. For Christmas 2025 my younger brother bought
me a Mary tin. I absolutely love it. Even without the history behind it I think
it is a lovely object. Which is just as well, as you'll see if you read on.
It does have an antecedent, in the shape of the chocolate
tins sent by Queen Victoria to British soldiers during the Boer War. Originally
Cadbury’s were commissioned, but being a quaker firm they were reluctant to be
involved with the war, and in the end the commission was shared by Cadburys, Frys
and Rowntree. Apparently you can work out which company made which by slight
differences on the box lid. There’s still a sizeable number of these tins in
existence but even a battered one that has lost most of its paint/enamel will
set you back a pretty penny.
You can see a basic similarity between the Boer War
chocolate tin and the 1914 Mary Tin. Both of them feature a cameo profile of
the titular donor.
I don’t know if the 17 year old Princess Mary was inspired
by her great grandmother’s gift some decade and a half earlier, but I can well
believe the girl’s sincerity in wanting to give the gift. She was gently
informed “Sorry, your Royal Highness, but you ain’t got enough lolly for that,
but never mind, we’ll get Joe and Josephine public to pay instead” or words to
the effect. A public appeal was launched that proved wildly successful, so much
so that the scheme was extended to include everyone in the Armed Forces. Mind
you, not everyone got these by Christmas 1914. The last were distributed as
late as 1920. The majority of them contained tobacco and cigarettes, but there
were a variety of different contents for non-smokers, nurses and Sikhs amongst
others. The tins were made of brass and this is one of the reasons why it took
so long for everyone to be given one. Brass was in short supply at times, for
example, the Lusitania was carrying tons of the stuff when it was sunk by a U
boat in 1915.
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| My first Mary tin - at the time I thought it was kosher |
The above photograph shows my first Mary tin. I think that the tin itself is a very desirable object and
I think a lot of the recipients of Mary tins did too considering how many of them are still
around. On the lid is an embossed design, which seems to owe something to art
nouveau. In the centre is the profile of the Princess, white there are 6
roundels in the border containing the names of allies Belgium, France, Russia,
Serbia, Montenegro and Japan. I like it tremendously.
Being the kind of person that I am, over the next few days
after Christmas I set out to find out as much as I could about the tins. One of
the things I discovered was that in 2014 the Daily Mail made a promotional
offer to their readers to provide a replica Mary tin – and a replica King’s
Shilling. I think they had to collect tokens or vouchers from the paper. I
immediately wondered just how good a replica they were. To cut a long story
short I found one for a reasonable price on ebay and bought it. Here it is
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| Mary tin 2014 Daily Mail Replica |
The first thing you notice about the replica is not something you can see in the photos. It’s the weight. My first tin is much heavier, and feels far more substantial. If anything the replica feels even lighter than the Old Holborn tobacco tins my father used to use. The metal may look like brass but it doesn't feel like bras - it's lighter metal, possibly tin, with a coating. The detailing on the lid, the embossed design is cruder than the original. The Christmas 1914 lettering is smaller, and further down the lid too. As regards the insides:-
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| Left - Daily Mail replica. Right - my first tin. When I took this photo I felt it was the replica that was wrong! |
The lids are very different. My first tin opens flat while the replica only
opens through 90 degrees. My first tin‘s lid closes over the edges of the body
of the tin, while the replica lid has a deep edge that closes inside the edges
of the main body of the tin. I don't know why this didn't set alarm bells ringing in my mind about my first tin, but that penny was a long time in dropping.
With my first reproduction tin I was messed around something rotten by Evri, the delivery company, so when it got to a fortnight after the original delivery date they gave me I was looking at alternatives in case it never did get delivered before my nerve snapped and I claimed a refund. Well, one of the reasonably priced alternatives I looked at obviously alerted the owner and he offered it to me at a reduction. The price was so good that I felt, hmm, I certainly didn’t mind having three boxes rather than 2, so I bought it. Then, the first one I ordered arrived. Here’s a photo of the three together.
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| Top and bottom tins are both Daily Mail tins despite the different colouring. As for the middle one, my first tin. . . I'll get to that |
So, my first Mary tin is in the middle. The one on top
is the last one to arrive, while the bottom one is the one that I wrote about
and photographed originally. So let’s take the first one away for a moment:-
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| Apart from the colour, the top one is stamped Daily Mail on the bottom and the other isn't |
The embossing on the lids seems pretty much identical, but
of course there is one glaring difference. The top one seems much closer in
colour to my first tin while the bottom one seems more of a coppery or bronze
colour almost. There is one other even more obvious difference between the two
tins which you can’t see from the photo. Compare the bottoms of the three tins
:-
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Yes, my first replica tin on the bottom does not have any
writing on it, while the top is stamped with the Daily Mail. I don’t know why.
There doesn’t appear to be any sign that the plain one has had anything done to
it to remove the writing so that someone could try to pass it off as an
original. Which I’m sure would be a forlorn attempt anyway because it doesn’t
require any expertise whatsoever to tell the difference between my first tin and
replica. I guess its because they were made in different batches, and being
promotional items, nobody was that bothered about each replica being identical
to all of the others. What I didn't stop to do was really think about why my first tin might be just SO different from the two replicas.
Well, there we are,the first tinl and 2 replicas. I thought that
was it. Only it wasn’t. You see, in the course of my research I found out about
a variation. This was clearly a reproduction, but instead of having the head of
Princess Mary embossed upon it, there is the date, 1914. I felt that this was
strange, but eventually I found a post on a forum that explained it. It said
that tins with 1914 were made as souvenirs of the Great War in the 1920s. The
change in the design was because the Crown forbade the use of the image of a
member of the Royal Family for commercial purposes. These were sold under the
name commemorative tins.
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| Commemorative tin replica. Reproduction of a reproduction |
The 1914 tin I had seen was not from the 1920s, but essentially a reproduction of one. So a reproduction of a reproduction. I wouldn’t say that it was difficult to get hold of, but I could only find one supplier. None to be found on ebay. Yes, of course I bought one. It’s an interesting piece. I mean it’s clearly based on the design of the original Mary tin. However some of the embossed writing is not there. Only the lid seems to be brassed, and it has a darker, less shiny surface colour than the originals or the Daily Mail reproductions. The lid is not attached by a hinge and its dimensions are slightly larger than the others I have. The body of the tin has some kind of matt black coating. It’s quite tactile actually, and it’s pretty heavy. If anything I’d say it’s heavier than the original.
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| One of these two is a genuine honest reproduction. The other . . . |
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| 4 tins and counting |
So there we are. Or are we?
Well not quite. In the course of finding out about the
reproduction Mary tins I came upon a post on an old internet forum that mentioned replicas made by the
Daily Mail and posh grocers, Fortnum and Mason's. I dived down this particular rabbit hole and
found out that in 2014 Fortnum and Mason’s in London had produced what I
believe is called a Tommy’s tin to commemorate the centenary of the original
Mary tins. Tins were gifted to all members of the Armed Forces serving in
Afghanistan. Based on photographs I found, the tin was very clearly based on
the Mary tin. It seems to have a helmeted head where Princess Mary’s was, and
instead of being flanked by two Ms, the head is flanked by F and M. I did find
one on ebay. This had the original contents, a mini pack of playing cards and
as a result the price was rather more than I was prepared to pay.
Eventually patience brought its reward and I was able to
buy an empty tin for about the same price as I paid for the first Daily Mail
replica.
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| Inspired by the Mary tin rather than being a faithful reproduction |
It’s fair to say that the Fortnum and Mason’s Tommy's Tin is
a homage to the Mary tin rather than a reproduction like the Daily Mail tin.
The design is obviously inspired by the original – with the border work, and
the circular motif surrounded by laurels. Instead of the profile of Princess
Mary, or the date, the circular motif shows a helmeted head, possibly
Britannia. I’m not sure if this is specifically Fortnum’s logo or
not. This motif is flanked not by two capital M’s, but rather an F and an M, as
in Fortnum and Mason’s. There is no other writing on the tin where the original
said Imperium Britannica and the names of the UK’s allies. However, where the
original tin says ‘Christmas 1914’ the Fortnum and Mason’s tin says, in very
small writing ‘Tommy’s Tin 1914 – 2014’.Unlike the original or the Daily Mail
reproductions, the lid removes and isn't hinged, and you can see the embossing
from the back.
The size of the tin is similar in length to the original,
but it’s noticeably thinner. It is also much, much lighter, possibly even a bit
lighter than the Daily Mail replica. That’s not the only similarity between
them. The quality of the modelling and embossing on the Fortnum tin is
comparable to the Daily Mail tin and not as fine as the original. Well, Fortnum
and Mason’s were giving them to the Armed Forces so let’s not moan too much
about that.
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In one way, feeling that my first tin was what famous art forger Tom Keating would call a ‘Sexton Blake’ didn’t stop me still thinking that it’s a lovely object. But I’d come too far to find that I didn’t yet own even one genuine tin to just leave it there. I bought a rather battered old genuine tin, which has seen better days, but it dispelled any doubt I had that my first tin might still be genuine.
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| At last the genuine article. A real 1914 Princess Mary Gift Fund Tin |
If you were planning on buying a Mary tin for yourself and
aren’t sure how to avoid buying a sexton, here’s a few tips.
1) Look
at Mary’s head.
2) Look at the date
3) Look
at how the lid is constructed
You can see how the sides of the original fit inside the tin, which will only open to 90 degrees. In the fake the sides of the lid fit outside the tin and the lid opens flat.
4) Look
at the bottom of the tin
H
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| Mary Tins - Left to right. Top row - left - genuine tin, right Daily Mail 2014 replica. Second row - left - the 'Sexton' (fake) - right - Commemorative tin reproduction - Bottom 2014 Fortnum and Mason Tommys Tin |
I’m certainly not an expert on war as such and I can’t say I find that the business of war is the most interesting subject in itself. I explained that I am interested in the Western Front, partly because of the poetry and partly because of the death of my great grandfather in the Battle of Passchendaele and how this led me to amassing a small collection of fakes, reproductions, replicas and reimagining’s of Mary tins and one original.
What I didn’t mention was that when Princess Mary conceived the idea of sending a Christmas present to all of the British and Empire soldiers on the Western front she was following the example set 14 years earlier by her great grandmother, Queen Victoria, during the Boer War. I hope it’s not too controversial if I say that the Boer War was not, in my opinion, Great Britain’s finest hour as a country and it’s certainly not a part of our shared history that I would personally celebrate. But through my interest in the First World War Princess Mary tins that I wrote about in part one I couldn’t help wanting to learn about their predecessor.
In 1899 Queen Victoria decided to send a box of chocolate to each private soldier, NCO and officer fighting in South Africa during the Boer War. Interestingly Victoria’s gift was not to be sent as a Christmas Gift, but a New Years gift for 1900.
Victoria planned to send a tin containing chocolate to each soldier. Only wanting the best for her boys she requested superior chocolate makers Cadbury’s to make and fill the tins. This put Cadbury’s into a dilemma. They did not want to refuse any commission, let alone such a patriotic one, from the Queen. However, Cadbury’s owners were Quakers and they did not want to profit from war or to be seen profiting from war. The solution to their problem was that they invited the Frys and Rowntree, both also firms owned by Quakers, to share the commission. With regards to not profiting from war each firm donated the chocolate inside the tins, while the tins were paid for by Queen Victoria.
The original design for the tins was made by Barclay and Fry of Southwark, but each of the three firms used a different manufacturer. The three companies did not want to put their logo on the boxes. Queen Victoria wanted the soldiers to recognise that she was sending them a quality product so she insisted that each firm put their name on the chocolate itself within the tins. As I said, the tins from the three different firms do look very similar. However it is possible to tell the difference between the tins supplied by the different companies. The easiest to distinguish is the Cadbury’s tin, which is narrower than the other two. The Fry’s and Rowntree’s tins have very similar dimensions.
After completing my Mary tin collection as described, I decided that it would really be nice if I could obtain a Victoria chocolate tin, and so I did so.
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| Queen Victoria New Year 1900 chocolate gift tin |
I now know that my tin was made for Rowntree. The first two distinguishing marks are the number of beads around the Queen’s medallion and the clear gap between the Queen’s profile and the roundel – on the Fry’s tins the Queen's image touches the roundel in one place. At the bottom of the lid, the Queen’s name and message wishing the recipient a happy new year is slanting upwards to the right. The message on the Fry’s tin is evenly aligned with the bottom edge of the lid.
I mentioned that Princess Mary was following in the footsteps of her great grandmother 14 years after Victoria made her gift. Was Mary consciously inspired by Victoria? It’s hard to say. Did the Queen Victoria tin influence the design of the Princess Mary tin? On both tins the first thing you notice is the roundel with the royal profile. In all honesty it’s difficult to be certain one way of another.
As with the later Mary tins, the Boer War chocolate tins seemed to have been pretty highly prized by the recipients, since they are still fairly common even a century and a quarter later. I’m pretty sure that there was an episode of Dad’s Army in which Corporal Jones was telling Pike all about receiving his chocolate tin in the Boer War, and saving it and keeping it safe, until one day, much later, he decided he fancied a piece of chocolate, opened it and found that the chocolate had been eaten by his best mate. it was funnier on screen.
I think that’s it for the tin collection now. Although there’s always the Cadbury’s and Fry’s tins out there . . .
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Top F and M 2014
Tommy's Tin - bottom - My first Mary Tin |
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top - reproduction
commemorative tin - Middle - F and M 2014 Tommy's tin - |
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