A splendid full page colour advert from the large format Civic Week supplement issued by the city’s "own" national newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. This quite lavish production, one of the supplements the paper became noted for, was singing the praises of what was then one of the world’s foremost industrial and commercial cities, and effectively at the top of that list was the cotton industry – Manchester was known as Cottonopolis.
Tootal Broadhurst Lee, to give them their full name were a long established company and one of the few integrated concerns (similar ot Horrockes, Crewdson) who were known as a retail ‘trademark’ – you asked in shops for "Tootal" brands at a time when many manufacturers made for the ‘trade’ and so produced unbranded goods. One of Tootal’s many product ranges was Pyramid Handkerchiefs and I can recall in the 1960s these were still available, often in neat boxes of three, each handkerchief folded and with a small paper label of the pyramid and Tootal’s name on.
The company’s origins date back to 1799, although the Tootal’s first appear in 1832. The company merged to form English Calico, although the Tootal name later reappeared, as part of the rationalisation of the UK’s textile industries and eventually they were acquired by Coats Viyella.
Posted by mikeyashworth on 2020-04-12 18:20:20
Tagged: , Tootal , Tootal Broadhurst Lee , Manchester , Bolton , cotton industry , Pyramid , Pyramid handkerchiefs , Happy Handkerchiefs , textile industry , textile brands , Manchester Guardian , Civic Week supplement , 1926 , vintage advertising , graphic design , commerical art , typeface , typography , lettering , advertising , advert , Mike Ashworth Collection