Wren’s shoe polish

This illustration comes from a Wren’s advertising tin c.1908 along with the advertising strap line of “Such a shine in just a minute” along with the declaration of “As used by all branches of His Majesty’s Service”.
Photo: David Pratt

This small tin with lid printed in brown and black on green carries a unique version of the butterfly twist – a rather complex two piece wire handle and plate riveted to the tin base.

Photo: David Pratt

Manufactured sometime between 1936 and 1952. This 6m diameter, full and unopened, tin with an plain edged lid is simply printed in black on a green ground.

Photo: David Pratt

Manufactured sometime between 1936 and 1952. This 6cm diameter tin with an plain edged lid is simply printed in black on a red ground. The contents, although slightly shrunken is still soft and usable thanks to the foil seal.
The tin design is somewhat different to the black polish tin above, having a cruder black print with the warrant arms filling in as well as the addition of key-lining. The key-lining appears on 1942 advertisements. The wren is slightly different too (it changes quite a bit over time anyway).

Photo: David Pratt

Manufactured sometime between 1936 and 1952. This 6cm diameter tin with an plain edged lid is printed in white and black on an orange ground. The tin design is somewhat different to the Dark Tan Stain polish tin above, having the addition of white giving a much less gloomy effect and it sports the butterfly twist opener. The wren is changed again too to the style used post-1952. The WW2 adverts of 1942 show a tin without a butterfly opener so it might be supposed that this tin dates post-war and shows the start of modernising the packaging.

Photo: David Pratt

Manufactured sometime between 1936 and 1952. This 6cm diameter tin with an plain edged lid is printed in white and black on a red ground. The tin design is somewhat different to the Light Brown polish tin above, having the addition of a net weight declaration.

Photo: David Pratt

The contents of the 6cm tin are shrunken but still retain the imprint from the tin base embossing. The polish has a turps/maripan smell and is still soft, no doubt helped by the foil seal and the well made tin with rolled edge lid and butterfly opener. Made post-1952 at the ‘Solar’ Cobra works in Bushey, Watford.

Photo: David Pratt

There are no contents in the well made 6cm tin with rolled edge lid and butterfly opener, printed in yellow and dark blue on a white ground. This was manufactured in the last phase of the Wren brand, that of Meltonian Wren Ltd and would have been made at the ‘Solar’ Cobra works in Bushey, Watford.

Photo: David Pratt

There are no contents in the well made 6cm tin with rolled edge lid and butterfly opener. Printed in mid-brown, dark brown and black on a white ground. This was manufactured in the last phase of the Wren brand, that of Meltonian Wren Ltd and would have been made at the ‘Solar’ Cobra works in Bushey, Watford.

Photo: David Pratt

The familiar well made 6cm tin with rolled edge lid and butterfly opener. Printed in orange, brown and black on a white ground. This was manufactured in the last phase of Meltonian Wren Ltd. The Watford address has vanished and the royal warrant has been replaced by a “W” symbol so it is assumed this was in the transitory phase when the Bushey works was closed down and manufacturing transferred to Reckitts.

Photo: David Pratt

Photo: David Pratt
The Royal warrant now gone and this 7cm tin must be dated after 1972 when manufacturing transferred to Hull. There is no barcode so the product is likely to be no later than 1985 and in any case no later than 1991 when Reckitt’s stopped making shoe polish when Sara Lee bought the company.

More information on the company can be found here: William Wren