- Edmund de Waal
#0003 Chocolate bar wrappers
Personal Collections
The collector: Andrew Leith, Design Consultant, Sussex (UK).
The collection: Chocolate bar wrappers.
The story behind the collection: I was writing a dissertation on cultures of collecting and a friend suggested it was a rather odd choice since I didn’t collect anything. I agreed and chose sweet wrappers as a practical and cheap solution.
Why chocolate bar wrappers? I’m a tight arse who likes sweets. When I started it was a rather arbitrary choice and there was nothing about the wrappers per se that interested me. But now they act as a kind of diary, as I would record with them the date of purchase along with a few words on the moment – who I was with, where I was and any accompanying event. The graphical aspect of them is a big draw for me now. There are definite styles from different countries, and the wrappers also reflect some of the cultural trends of the time. You can pick out themes such as ‘chunkiness’, or holographic packaging coming through over a 12-18month period and then petering out. This has led to a dreadfully ill-resourced website.
How long have you been collecting? 15 years
How many do you have? About 1200
How is your collection arranged or displayed? In a batch of A5 artists sketch pads. I try to flatten out the wrappers as much as possible. Thin film technology does not make it easy to do this as it easily tears. I usually use a scalpel to tease the layers apart or make small hidden cuts in the wrapper to draw out a flat edge.
For the wrappers I am showing here on the site I’ve decided to stick mainly to UK wrappers and show a selection across the themes of ‘Extinct’, ‘Variants’, ‘Redesigns’ and ‘Limited editions’ plus a couple of my favourite solo pieces.
Do you have a favourite? It's got to be the Spice Girls Dairy Milk collection. Or perhaps the Risoletto one. Minimal, reserved – very Swiss. Then again the Lion bar wrapper stolen from a materials library and in ‘mint condition’ is great. Mr Jim – possibly my favourite ever chocolate bar - and now no longer available is the grand dame of the discontinued theme.
Is there a particular one that you don’t have that you would really love? I don’t collect wrappers that are historical. They have to be currently available in the newsagents when I get them. So there are none that I feel are missing until it is too late to get them, so I try not to dwell on it. I’d like to have got all of the Spice Girls Diary milk variants.
Do you have any other collections? The internal volumes of 3 pin UK plugs
Andrew's website: www.cocoasolids.co.uk
Images © Andrew Leith and used with his kind permission.
Reader Comments (2)
Wow, 1200 chocolate bars is a hell of a lot of 'research'.
Do still have your own teeth? ; )
I love chocolate too... Mmmmm
Your websites funny & ancient. U shud update it. Seriously.