PHARMACY HISTORY AUSTRALIA

Vol 3, No 25 March 2005

The Sons of Maw ( The full article appears below) - Geoff Miller

Maw Trading Names and Bottle Marks - Susan Watts

What’s in a Name? Derivation of Drug Names

Book Review - "ASPIRIN" - Sal Volatile

Kodak - The name from Thin Air

Red Cross Pharmacies - Geoff Miller

Charles Conway MPS - Geoff Miller

Fox Pharmacy Dynasty - Radley West

Edward Mayhew - Geoff Miller

The Power of Ethical Advertising - J.L.Townley

Old Pharmacy Furnishings - The Drug Run

From Pharmacy History Australia :

The Sons of Maw,

The name MAW has been associated with a whole range of British made chemist’s sundries, dressings, surgical appliances and instruments, for nearly 200 years. Whilst it is more than likely that it is the older generation of pharmacists who best remember Maw, as their strictly "Chemists Only" products and their range of dressings and bandages were stocked by practically every community pharmacy.0 Unfortunately importation problems and increased competition have seen them disappear from Pharmacy shelves in Australia.

Today Maw products are now invisible in the UK as well, and the Maw name on all packaging has been re-branded as Tommee Tippee. This is another corporate name used by the Mayborn group of companies, for the US market, where Maw had won many awards for their innovative baby products which combined infant safety with function and style.

Apart from their huge pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution business, the Maw family was also associated with the manufacture of decorative tiles for walls and floors. A well known example of this craft are the floor and wall tiles in St.Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne.

Our story starts in 1807 when a Lincolnshire farmer, George Maw decided to start a new life in London with his wife Ann and their (then) three children. George established a wholesale druggist business in London with his wife's cousin named Hornby. In 1814 he parted from Mr Hornby and set up a pharmaceutical manufacturing business by purchasing a surgical plaster factory. Other sundries were soon added including surgeons' instruments.

George Maw, Founder 1807

When their eldest son, John Hornby Maw turned 15, his father placed him with a chemist at Croydon for two years and afterwards entered him at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London in order to get first hand knowledge which might benefit the family business. In 1826 J H Maw was taken into partnership with his father.

As well as being an instrument maker, George Maw is attributed with being the inventor of baby feeding teats, which revolutionised the infant care industry by adapting a baby's natural feeding process to create the world's first feeding teat.. (2) The Maw Company also manufactured feeding bottles of many different patent designs. One of the most successful of their early products was the Maws Fountain feeding bottle, which had a teat attached to a rubber tube which was connected to the bottle by a non return valve to prevent the milk draining back into the bottle. (3)
The family business prospered and in the early 1830s provided a secure financial basis for John Hornby Maw to begin to indulge in the collection of paintings. In 1835 he retired from the business for health reasons but its considerable commercial success continued throughout the nineteenth century under his brother Solomon and nephew Charles. In 1849 the family moved to Devon for a few months and it was here that an interest in decorative tile making was aroused. It struck him that it would not be difficult to imitate ancient encaustic tiles by using inlaid clays in the medieval fashion. Designs were traced in local churches and the prototypes were fired by a local potter.

J H Maw saw 'the germ of the business for his boys for which he had been searching and in 1850 a disused tile works was purchased at Worcester, and for two years floor tiles were made there. In 1852 the family, their workforce and equipment moved (by special train!) to Benthall in the Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire, to be closer to sources of coal and suitable clay. The family firm grew rapidly over the next decade, the demand for decorative floor tiles being fuelled by the building and restoration of churches and grand civic buildings. Wall tiling and glazed architectural faience was added to the product range and designs were commissioned from leading architects. A considerable quantity of tiles were exported to the countries of the British Empire and to the United States. By the 1880s Maws manufacturing site at Benthall had become too restricted and land was purchased at Jackfield, a mile downstream on the River Severn where a new Benthall Works was erected and opened on 1 May 1883.

John Hornby Maw's achievements fall into three distinct phases. His entrepreneurial flair was first demonstrated during his early years in London in the family manufacturing chemists business. The last 33 years of his life in Shropshire, saw his business flair linked to successful artistic manufacture - the epitome of a Victorian art industry. He saw decorative tile making develop from a few crude, handmade prototypes in 1849 to the opening of the largest decorative tile works in the world in 1883.

Meanwhile, the mainstream branch of the family kept expanding the medical side of the Maw business, which survived the disruptions and devastation of two world wars. It was not until 1970 that the last Maw descendent retired and the old firm was absorbed into one of the multi national companies that dominate the market today.

NOTE

The following article by Susan Watts., provides a complete picture of the progress of the MAW business from 1807 until the present day, and should be useful to the collector who needs a reliable reference for determining the age of an artefact.

REFERENCES