The Art of the Biscuit Tin | The Lewis Collection

In the 19^th century a series of events seemed to work in tandem to bring about the dawn of the quintessentially British biscuit tin.

In 1861 the Licensed Grocer’s Act meant grocery items could be packaged and sold individually, biscuits included. Duty on paper used for printed labels was also removed. Later in the 1860s came the innovation of offset lithography which allowed designs to be printed directly onto tinplate, a process that was patented in 1877.

This process was a revelation. Vibrant and ornate patterns, scenes of countries far and wide, scenes of everyday life, faux-wood and faux-tortoiseshell designs could be printed on biscuit tins of all shapes and sizes.

McTear’s is pleased to present The Lewis Collection, a lifelong curation of biscuit tins collated by one man and now brought to auction for the first time.  

Mr D. B. Lewis (known as Barrie) assembled his collection between 1980 and 2014. Why biscuit tins, one might ask. Barrie’s interest in tins was fostered by the business he started in the 1960's with his wife Jill. He initially sold cakes, biscuits and confectionary from market stalls in the West Midlands and later moved into selling wholesale from premises in West Bromwich, where he sold and imported biscuits, cakes and other sundries from Europe. 

In the 1980s Barrie’s daughter found a biscuit tin at a local antique shop and this kicked started a decades-long passion.

Soon Barrie was making regular Sunday visits to antique fairs around the country. His first tins were of an everyday variety and these are now to be found on display in his old warehouse, presently owned by his son, but Barrie soon started to search out the best quality tins.

More selective in his purchasing, Barrie began building an eclectic collection with rare and unusual examples from the main British biscuit manufacturers and beyond. Barrie’s good relations with dealers in Perth and Dundee meant they would send him interesting tins, as well as his contacts in the private collecting world, resulting in years of warm correspondence and tin swaps. Barrie also frequented London auction houses for a number of purchases over the years.

Come 1989, so numerous was his collection, Barrie dedicated a special place in his home, creating the ultimate showcase display in The Tin Room. In 2001 Barrie bequeathed the collection to his daughter and, upon his death in 2022, she devotedly moved the collection to East Lothian, Scotland.

A stand-alone auction is, we trust, a presentation of The Lewis Collection befitting the care and passion with which it was curated, allowing the tins to travel the globe and enter new collections.