Victory V

Victory V cough lozenges were developed as long ago as the 1860s, a sort of hard pressed tablet sweet designed to be slowly sucked in the mouth and let the ingredients relieve sore throats. Such medicated confectionary was becoming big business. The Cough No More Lozenge was first made in Bolton but demand grew and an old chemist’s factory was purchased, The Victory Factories, in Nelson, Lancashire. They were first named Victory Chlorodyne Lozenges, then this was changed to Linseed Liquorice V Lozenge Victory and shortened to Victory V around 1910.

This shop counter tin dates from the 1920s. Sealed originally with a paper strip around the lid opening, the sweets (which were stamped with the firm’s sales logo) would be dispensed in small conical paper sweet bags in 2 or 4 oz amounts.
Litho printed, I like the way the design of the tin includes a clever painted “glass” panel on the side. This was to replace older shop counter tins which included a proper glass window to show the sweets but were more expensive to produce. Needless to say cold journeys then were certainly more frequent than they are today, so their advertising slogan was quite clever. There’s a neat little circular logo on the side too, featuring a busby helmeted gunner blasting a cannon. [These images are available in our Image Library].

Prior to the red branding, Victory V tins were astonishingly ornate and much decorated. I particularly like this Victorian example.

Originally ingredients included ether, liquorice, and chlorodyne – a mixture of opium, cannabis, alcohol and chloroform originally invented for the treatment of Cholera in the British Indian Army. Not so much soothing as knocking you out flat! I’m not sure when they were forced to change the formula.
The Lancashire Museums site suggests the firm also invented the Jelly Baby. The factory (shown below – what is in those hundreds of sacks the worker is stood on?) was pulled down in the late 1980s and the brand sold, the sweets are today made in Devon and produced alongside many of the other medicinal sweets, but after numerous take overs the brand is owned by Cadbury Schweppes.

This useful tin, which is about 8” high, continues to serve a purpose 100 years on and has become a place where we store all the spare brackets and fittings for our Remploy shelving, so we always know where to look!