Vintage candy tin for toffees (Fudge) by Van Melle with various images of ornamental birds such as the Bird of Paradise, Ara and Peacock

Vintage candy tin for toffees (Fudge) by Van Melle with various images of ornamental birds such as the Bird of Paradise, Macaw and Peacock.

• Manufacturer: Woud & Bekkers Tin factories
• Date of manufacture: 1925 - 1928

Description
Large high rectangular candy tin with rounded corners for Van Melle toffees, equipped with a hinged lid with an image of different birds on three sides. The fourth side shows the Van Melle logo and text.

The decoration of this beautiful counter tin consists of a blue background decorated with gold-coloured tendrils with grapes. The ornamental birds on the three sides are the Bird of Paradise, the Macaw and the Peacock. On the fourth side on an orange background the Van Melle logo and the text: N.V. van Melle's. Confectionary works. Breskens Holland, Rotterdam - Amsterdam.

Lower right in small lettering: Woud & Bekkers Amsterdam Dordt. On all sides in an orange background the text "Van Melle's Toffees".

The tin is also richly decorated with various floral motifs. On the lid is a field with the inscription "JE MAINTIENDRAI".

The director of Van Melle, Izaak van Melle, gladly left his mark on the decoration of the tins, in which the sweets of his company were on the counter in the period 1925 – 1935.

This candy tin is the original tin from the 1920s! It was reissued a few decades later in the 1990s as a biscuit reproduction in a slightly modified version.

Verblifa. The Vereenigde Blikfabrieken was a Dutch company that manufactured tin packaging. The Vereenigde Blikfabrieken was founded in 1912 and was the result of a merger between two existing Zaanse can factories.

In 1930 Verblifa acquired practically all the shares in the Woud & Bekkers Blikfabrieken, which operated under the former name Dordrechtsche Metaalwarenfabriek v/h Wed. J. Bekkers & Zoon continued as an independent company under Verblifa.

Condition
This beautiful tin made by Van Melle for fudge is in good vintage condition with traces of use and age-related traces of wear. Photos are part of description.

Dimensions

• Height: 28.50 cm.
• Length: 15.50 cm.
• Width: 15.50 cm.

Van Melle started around 1840 as a bakery in Breskens. They also sold sugar balls. In 1900, Izaak van Melle also began to produce these mechanical. About 1920, Izaak's brother Dirk-Machiel started a factory for biscuits and waffles. 

In 1932 the Brothers Michael and Pierre Van Melle set off for Poland where they learned a procedure to produce soft fruit chews. From the trip they bring the original “Tell Dough” to the Netherlands, leading to the creation of Fruittella. Based on the Fruittella recipe they are inspired to create a peppermint flavoured candy to be later named Mentos. 

World War II destroyed the Van Melle Breskens factory, forcing the company to move to Rotterdam. On 22 November the official opening in Rotterdam took place. 

Pavo is a genus of two species in the pheasant family. The two species, along with the Congo peacock, are known as peafowl. 

Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are referred to as peahens, even though peafowl of either sex are often referred to colloquially as "peacocks".

The two Asiatic species are the blue or Indian peafowl originally of the Indian subcontinent, and the green peafowl of Southeast Asia; the one African species is the Congo peafowl, native only to the Congo Basin. Male peafowl are known for their piercing calls and their extravagant plumage. The latter is especially prominent in the Asiatic species, which have an eye-spotted "tail" or "train" of covert feathers, which they display as part of a courtship ritual.

The functions of the elaborate iridescent colouration and large "train" of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Charles Darwin suggested that they served to attract females, and the showy features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. More recently, Amotz Zahavi proposed in his handicap theory that these features acted as honest signals of the males' fitness, since less-fit males would be disadvantaged by the difficulty of surviving with such large and conspicuous structures.

ARA is a Neotropical genus of macaws with eight extant species and at least two extinct species. The genus name was coined by French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. It gives its name to and is part of the Arini, or tribe of neotropical parrots. The genus name Ara is derived from the Tupi word ará, an onomatopoeia of the sound a macaw makes.

The Ara macaws are large striking parrots with long tails, long narrow wings and vividly coloured plumage. They all have a characteristic bare face patch around the eyes. Males and females have similar plumage. Many of its members are popular in the pet trade, and bird smuggling is a threat to several species.

The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 42 species in 15 genera. The members of this family are perhaps best known for the plumage of the males of the species (the majority) which are sexually dimorphic, in particular the very long elaborate feathers extending from the beak, wings, tail or head. For the most part they are confined to dense rainforest habitat. The diet of all species is dominated by fruit and to a lesser extent arthropods. The birds-of-paradise have a variety of breeding systems, ranging from monogamy to lek-type polygamy.

A number of species are threatened by hunting and habitat loss.

Some translations come from an automated system and may contain errors.