Boord & Son, Old Tom Gin Labels, Image & Found by Dave Hiddleston.
Found on Thames foreshore, near the Leadenhall Building, 28mm.
Cat standing on a barrel, inscription around BOORD & SON curving downward LONDON curving upward
Six of these discs were found together, most very corroded. They are far too thin to be used as cloth seals and there is no sign of attachment to other discs or a rivet.
Research points to them being bottle or barrel labels. "The precise origin of the term ‘Old Tom,’ as applied to unsweetened gin, appears to be somewhat obscure. In the English case of Board & Son v. Huddart (1903), in which the plaintiffs established their right to the ‘ Cat Brand ‘ trade-mark, it was proved before Mr Justice Swinfen Eady that this firm had first adopted about 1849 the punning association of the picture of a Tom cat on a barrel with the name of ‘Old Tom’; and it was at one time supposed that this was due to a tradition that a cat had fallen into one of the vats, the gin from which was highly esteemed. But the term ‘ Old Tom ‘ had been known before that, and Messrs Boord & Son inform us that previously ‘ Old Tom ‘ had been a man, namely ‘old Thomas Chamberlain of Hodge’s distillery’; an old label book in their possession (1909) shows a label and bill-head with a picture of ‘ Old Tom ‘ the man on it, and another label shows a picture of a sailor lad on shipboard described as ‘Young Tom.’ The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Published by The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, 1910." This quote and a picture of the trade mark can be seen at gazregan.
"English Heritage (Jonathan Clarke) has produced an architectural survey report on the Boord & Sons Distillery Offices at 115-121 Tooley Street, SE1. This detailed report concerns Boord's dramatic and well known building, of c1900 to designs by Aston Webb, on a site which once stretched to the riverside." from GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY.
