One of my favorite antique advertising items is this large oval advertising tray from the Candy Brothers Manufacturing Company in St. Louis, MO. The Candy Brothers Manufacturing Company was started in the 1870’s by brothers Robert, Thomas and Sydney Candy. The business was based in St. Louis, however, they eventually opened a second location in Columbus, OH too.
This colorful 1900 era tray brilliantly incorporates the various flavors of their fruit vitamin tablets with the color of the fruit. In the early 1900’s the idea of selling vitamins was still in its infancy. I can only imagine many people of this era questioned the effectiveness of these little vitamin tablets, but they were willing to try them. This was also a time where mineral spring bath houses were flourishing in many cities . At the mineral springs the pools of mineral water were supposed to full of and the body would absorb them. Undoubtedly many people of the era were starting to do whatever it took to help their overall health and longevity when the average life expectancy was around 50.
What I find interesting is the Candy family started a vitamin business where their sole product might have been associated by many customers as being a candy. Did the Candy family start this business with this idea in mind, knowing their family name would help portray perpetuate this thinking? I don’t think we will ever know for sure.
As successful as the company was in the early 1900’s, the only advertising items I seem to find today from this business is the tray pictured here which turns up periodically along with some large paper label bottles which held their vitamins. The same bottle style is pictured on this tray.