Monkey Brand soap box
Monkey Brand soap box
Name/Title
Monkey Brand soap boxEntry/Object ID
2025.1.670Description
Cardboard box to hold Monkey Brand soap, which was always wrapped in orange paper.Context
Sold from the 1880s in Great Britain, the company Benjamin Brooke and Co. was purchased by William Lever in 1899. The Monkey Brand 'soap-monkey' appeared in various disguises but settled as a sort of monkey/human servant. The brand was so popular that it found its way into contemporary literature of the time - Bernard Shaw, Beatrix Potter and James Joyce. The soap was especially useful in hospitals in for scrubbing down muddy and blood caked floors. Stanley Spencer, the artist, recalls scrubbing endlessly, as an orderly, in a hospital in WWI.Category
Domestic