This is an absolutely beautiful Art Deco biscuit tin that was issued at Christmas in 1933.
The biscuit tin takes the form of a little cottage which is called Bicky House – and it was made for William Crawford & Sons Limited for their Kiddibics range. Not only did this tin store your biscuits – but also doubled up for use as a bank – there is a little slot in the roof.
The tin is just a most glorious design and in such excellent condition. The cottage has pretty white walls and blue shutters on the window with little cut-out heart shapes. A little tree grows around the door – and a little rose-coloured bench is out in the garden. The owner of the house comes to the door to let her little black cat inside.
The slanted yellow thatched roof of the cottage forms the lid of the tin and the bank section inside. There are two little dormer windows and a little pale pink chimney to the front.
On the other side of the little cottage, you can see a stable door with a little child peeping out over the lower section. Again, with pretty leaded windows with blue shutters. A large rainwater barrel is beside the door. A tree is growing at the extreme left-hand side – and on the thatched roof are three gleaming white doves.
It is a nice large size for display being 8 ¼ inches in length, with a width of 4 ¾ inches and an overall height of 6 ¾ inches.
These tins would never have been cheap items and not made in such large numbers – given that they would often be played with by children as a toy, they are now very rare. They are now more often than not see in specialist collections or packaging museums - and indeed one of these Bicky House tins is currently on display in the V&A Museum in London.
As you can see from my photographs, my Bicky House tin is in excellent vintage condition – there is really only some little areas of rubbing to the corners and some very minimal surface scratches – very tiny and certainly not disfiguring or indeed even obvious on display.
The colours are all nice and bright with no evidence of fading. The white is still nice and clean with no signs of yellowing or dirty residues which might have accumulated on the surface over time. There are no dents on the tin – and the hinge is secure and works as expected.
The interior is a dark grey colour with the natural oxidisation of the metal - there are a couple of tiny and stable rust marks to the surface - but not bittern into the metal. All as photographed.
This is as nice an example of this museum-quality tin that you might wish to find.
To keep in pristine condition of course this lovely tin will be carefully packed and sent to the UK with Royal Mail Special Next Day Delivery to ensure it gets to you quickly and also fully insured in transit.