Tin, biscuit tin

A souvenir of the Festival of Britain: a gold metal biscuit tin, decorated with floral patterns and the Festival of Britain logo in the centre of the lid. In 1951 Britain was still recovering from war-time rationing and tins of biscuits were seen as special treats:

‘The Festival also used surplus war scrap in the making of such things as souvenirs. The country was heartily tired of wartime utility goods – white crockery and plan textiles among other things…Luxury commodities like tins of biscuits tea and sweets were slow to enter the shops, and so such things displayed at the South Bank exhibition were snapped up very quickly…there was such a need of things that the Festival supplied (scarves, fancy tea-cloths, pots and crockery, glassware, book matches etc.) that they have probably worn out with use; the more durable things like pen-knives, metal dishes and ash trays, trays, tea and jam spoons and brooches, may still be around in abundance’.

(D.E. Warren, recalling the Festival of Britain, in ‘A Tonic to the Nation’, 1976)