Page 21 - Antique Advertising & Breweriana Auction Sunday 22 November

119. PACKERS BRISTOL CHOCOLATE SHOP DISPLAY CABINET. 27 x 18.5 x 9ins. Delightful sloping front cabinet with 2 sloping glass shelves, plus a lower shelf, accessed via 2 wooden rear doors (see additional images on easylive). Top glass pediment, with shaped wooden surround, features coloured chocolate pods and lettering in gold and
white. A rare and delightful small size cabinet.
By 1907 central city Bristol boasted no less than 8 chocolate factories owned and operated by J.S. Fry and Sons, the chocolate company that began in 1728
and by 1822 had become the largest commercial producer of chocolate in Britain. It’s difficult to imagine now, but Bristol’s city centre was dominated by these large chocolate factories - Willy Wonka’s dream city but none of this heritage remains today.
The expansion of the Fry’s
family business resulted in
the 8 chocolate factories
mentioned above began in
1860. However, in 1881,
Edward Packer, a fellow
Quaker and Fry’s employee,
established his own chocolate
making business at his home in Armoury
Square, Stapleton Road, Easton. Mr Packer’s business grew rapidly, taking over his whole house, before he moved it to dedicated premises in St Paul’s.
By the turn of the century, under a new owner, the company had outgrown its St Paul’s site and in 1900 acquired a new site at Greenbank for a purpose- built factory. Bristol architect F. Shove designed the original buildings
and Bristol’s leading builders at the time, William Cowlin and Sons, constructed them in 1901; these are the original Greenbank Chocolate Factory buildings we can see today. The first engine used in the
business was running at
the brand new Greenbank factory by November
1901 (even a chocolate manufacturer needed to
employ engineers to keep running various steam engines used in the production process).