Vintage Peek, Frean & Co. Ltd biscuit tin in the shape of a tea box decorated in an oriental style, circa 1950

Vintage Peek, Frean & Co. Ltd biscuit tin in the shape of a tea box decorated in an oriental style, circa 1950.

• Manufacturer: Peek, Frean & Co., Ltd., London, England
• Date of manufacture: 1950s

Description
Octagonal vintage tin for tea biscuits with a separate insert lid with handle. The decoration of this tin consists of a white to light blue background with black surfaces. The tin is shown in shades of pink, blue-green and gold. The tin is provided with various images in oriental style.

This tin is marked with a coat of arms on the bottom. Text: By Appointment to her Majesty the Queen Biscuit manufacturers.

Peek, Frean & Co. LTD, london S.E. 16, England

Condition
This tin is in a vintage condition with traces of use and age-related traces of wear. Pictures are part of the description.

Size

• Height: 14.5 cm.
• Length: 11.7 cm.
• Width: 11.7 cm.

Peek Freans is the name of a former biscuit manufacturer based in Bermondsey, London. Now a global brand of biscuits and related confectionery owned by several food companies.

James Peek (1800–1879) was one of three brothers born in Dodbrooke, Devon, into a wealthy family. In 1821, the three brothers founded a tea import company, founded as Peek Brothers and Co., in London's East End. By the 1840s, the company was importing £ 5 million of tea a year.

In 1824 Peek married Elizabeth Masters (1799–1867). The couple had eight children. In 1857, two of his late teenage sons had announced that they would not join the family-owned tea import business.

Peek wanted them in a complementary business and suggested starting a biscuit business. After establishing the company, the two sons soon decided to take a different course (one died in his early twenties; the other emigrated to North America). As a result, Peek needed someone to run the cookie business. One of his nieces, Hannah Peek, had recently married George Hender Frean, a Devon miller and biscuit maker, so Peek wrote to Frean asking him to run the new biscuit business.

The partners registered their company in 1857 as Peek, Frean & Co. Ltd, located in a disused sugar refinery on Mill Street in Dockhead, South East London, to the west of Bermondsey.

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