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Catalogue: Fowler's Bottling Outfits
Catalogue: Fowler's Bottling Outfits
Catalogue: Fowler's Bottling Outfits

Catalogue: Fowler's Bottling Outfits

Associated
Date1930s
Object NameCatalogue
Mediumpaper
ClassificationsDomestic
DimensionsOverall: Height: 19.5 cm, Width: 12.3 cm
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDMS014075
About Me"How to bottle fruits, vegetables, game, rabbits, poultry, meat, milk, etc. for domestic and commercial purposes". Ex Sergeant-Major Geoffrey Fowler., M.I.H., F.R.H.S. was a pioneer of the British bottling industry. There is little information available about Fowler, Lee and Co. but they produced preserving equipment in the 1920s,30s & 40s. The company were appointed as suppliers of fruit preserving appliances to H.M. King George VI.

George Fowler, Sergeant-Major in the RAMC based in Kent, moved to Reading to start the company with his brother-in-law, Lee, (who later changed his name to Fowler by deed poll) around 1905 as a fruit bottling plant. He later started manufacturing picnic stoves; he invented the 'Tommy Stove' which was used in the trenches in the First World War. George used to pack cigarettes & chocolates in the stoves as he liked to think he brought a smile to their faces as the brave soldiers opened the stoves.

It was a nephew of George Fowler, Joseph Fowler, who emigrated to Melbourne and started Fowlers Vacola, a preserving company that was established in 1915 and is still in existence.
George Fowler gave the patents for his preserving bottles or jars that were manufactured in Reading to his nephew Joseph Fowler and suggested he start a new life “down under”. As indicated in the Geo. Fowler “How to bottle ...” book first published in Maidstone in 1898 or 1899 and then subsequently in Reading with many revised editions, many different sized jars were manufactured for preserving different fruits, vegetable, game and so on. The popular No 27 jar was for plums, half pears and apricots, whilst the broader and less common No 41 jar was designed for small fowl, pheasant etc. Joseph Fowler adopted the same numbering system and criteria for his jars, but with some notable differences.