Vaseline jar
Chesebrough Manufacturing Co Ltd
Category
Glass
Date
circa 1924 - circa 1955
Materials
Glass
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire
NT 82696
Summary
A jar of Vaseline with lid. 'Vaseline trademark, White Petroleum Jelly', 'Chesebrough Mfg Co Ltd, London, England'. Impressed on base 'refined in U.S.A.' On lid 'Blue Seal Package'. In 1859 a 22-year old British chemist Robert Chesebrough travelled to Titusville, Pennsylvania, where petroleum had just been discovered, to find out what other products could be made from the oil. He noticed oilmen rubbed the wax residue from the oil drills onto their skin to help heal cuts and burns. In 1865 he founded the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company to produce Wonder Jelly, the first petroleum jelly; in 1870 he changed the name to Vaseline, after the German word for water (wasser) and the Greek for oil (olion or elaion). 'The process by which “Vaseline” is made is the only known process of deodorizing petroleum without impairing its properties for medicinal, pharmaceutical, and toilet purposes. In the manufacture of “Vaseline” no acids are used, the petroleum being simply concentrated by dry heat to a jelly, and repeatedly filtered through animal charcoal, essentially the same process used to produce white sugar, and is perfectly harmless.' (Chesebrough brochure, 1886 ) Vaseline was patented in the United States in 1872 and England in 1877. The London medical journal 'The Lancet' endorsed Vaseline in 1876, and it received the Highest Award at the London Medical International Congress in 1881. Robert Chesebrough was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1883. Production had started in England by 1884 and a finishing and packaging plant opened in London in 1924. A World War II air raid in 1940 caused $50,000 damage to the London works. Robert Chesebrough died in 1933 and Chesebrough Manufacturing merged with Pond's in 1955.
Provenance
Anonymous donation to the National Trust for the furnishing of Fen Cottage.
Makers and roles
Chesebrough Manufacturing Co Ltd , manufacturer