Holloway’s Ointment Tall Pot

Edwardian

Circa 1910–1931 | England

An antique Holloway’s ointment pot advertising the treatment for cuts, wounds, burns and bruises by the inimitable Thomas Holloway (see The Gen). Transfer printed in black on cream earthenware.

Perfect to use today as a pinch pot for salt or pepper, or spice pots.

DIMENSIONS: Height 4.5 cm, Width 4.9 cm.

SIGNATURES, MARKINGS & INSCRIPTIONS: Unmarked.

CONDITION: In good condition, with wear commensurate with antique age and use of such a piece. Discoloured throughout with some heavier rust stain as well. There is a tiny flake to the base edge and some fine crazing. These all add to the history of the piece and wonder of the stories it could tell.

REFERENCES: An example of a similar pot is held at the State Library of NSW. 

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THE GEN

Mr Holloway was without doubt a very canny businessman and marketing genius. He saw an opportunity to capitalise on the many illnesses and ailments that came with the industrial growth and urbanisation of Victorian society by producing “cure all” ointments. Beginning from around 1840 onwards, Holloway’s ointments would become so successful that he would amass a massive fortune over the course of the nineteenth century. He seemingly invented “universal cure” ointments for just about every conceivable ailment or illness of the period. From asthma to skin conditions, jaundice to tumours, headaches to sore breasts and sore legs, and countless more, Holloway had an ointment to help cure you. His ointments sold on a mass scale, even Queen Victoria used them.

The great success behind Holloway was in his understanding of marketing. He was the first great advertiser of the time, spending vast sums of money on large scale and colourful advertising of his ointments throughout Britain, the British Empire and the United States. By 1863 he was spending over £40,000 per year on advertising, an extraordinary sum of money. By the late nineteenth century however, Holloway's ointments were receiving criticism from some medical professionals who claimed he was nothing but a quack and that his ointments offered no more than a placebo effect, with their sales success attributed to nothing more than clever advertising. Thomas Holloway may likely have been the world’s greatest “snake oil salesman”, so it’s somewhat fitting that his ointment pots were so often adorned with a snake curled beside the seated female figure of Hygeia, the ancient goddess of health.

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