Textile and Industrial Heritage - Elida Faberge

The final piece on the Textile and Industrial Heritage panel sponsored by Unilever is another rendition of Watson's Matchless Cleanser, this time with the lettering for Elida Faberge.

Joseph Watson's grandson, also Joseph, retired from business in 1917 and sold his interests to Lord Leverhulme but Watson's Matchless Cleanser was still produced with that name until 1933.

Lever's and all its subsidiaries became part of Unilever in 1930 but were not called that until fairly recently. In 1962 the Leeds works were known as Gibbs Pepsodent, then in 1965 as Gibbs Proprietaries. In 1971 they became Elida Gibbs and during the production of the Tapestry were known as Elida Faberge. No wonder that until the move from Whitehall Road in the 1980s they were still affectionately known as Soapy Joe's.

Leeds branch of Unilever is now based at Seacroft, I haven't managed to track down what is made there though it seems that it is Europe's largest aerosol factory and is set up for recycling.

This little chap was hand stitched by Evi Malm.