TINS of TASTE MUSEUM ~ INDEX
This is the INDEX PAGE of countries for which there are tins for the museum, almost all of which held a food/beverage item when purchased. The listing is alphabetized by country & it's linked page will continue to be sub-divided by names of food items, companies, subjects, or other helpful designations if needed. Then attached pages will hold the photo archives of the tins as there is time to photograph & document each tin within the current almost 40-year collection. The few pages that have a "sampling" will give an idea of the historic record that is planned for the 4,000+ current collection of food tins (around 2,000 are European and 2,000 from the USA). The countries which have photos available for viewing have an *asterisk by the listing & are in black.
Preserving food in tin containers began around 1810. The use of tin containers escalated with the English Huntley & Palmers Biscuit (cookie) Company using tins in order to ship their products damage-free. They began decorating tins in the 1860s & creating shapes in the 1890s. Soon after, the separate, German, Heinrich Haeberlein, & F. G. Metzger, Lebkuchen companies, & F. Ad. Richter & Cie, began putting their honey-nut-gingerbread cookies in decorative tins. There may have also been other companies we don't know of. Commercially selling Lebkuchen had already been an industry for several centuries with its history somewhat documented in the 1300s, but mainly from the 1500s.
Through the years we have created a standardized measuring & photographing system which we hope all tin collectors will use "as the language to describe a tin."
#1 - the cover: ALWAYS measure the cover first - it determines the shape of the tin; then measure height.
#2 - To photograph after the cover, the 1st design is the tin's sides beginning with the seam to the left. If with larger "chests" there's a seam at each corner, generally if it's the "back/front" or "side," it's identified as such.
#3 - Continue going to the right around the tin (turning the tin clockwise), & then the bottom. If the bottom is blank, there is no photo in these archives. If there is a "ToT#xxxx" with the tin, it is the museum's internal catalog #. It has no bearing on the date of the tin.
For anyone who's been coming to this website page to look up tins, the list of all the German companies will now be one click away - above on GERMANY. When I began this (never having done a website before), putting the German companies in a list right here - 44 items - was a way to begin. Now I've made a GERMAN TIN MASTER INDEX page, as there will be for each of the countries. Little-by-little I'm figuring this website business out!! Donna Kozak, Founder
GREECE
IRELAND
ITALY
NETHERLANDS, The (or known as "Holland")
NORWAY
POLAND
SLOVAKIA
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
UNITED STATES, The
WALES