Page 3 - Pharmacy History 29 Nov 2006

The sons of Maw
By Geoff Miller
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. 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 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.
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.
George Maw, Founder 1807
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
volume 3 ■ no 25 ■ March 2005
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 3