Like any normal person, I decorate my bathroom with Victorian engravings of anthropomorphised monkeys.

These two depict the kind of half ape / half-monkey used by Benjamin Brooke and Lever Brothers to promote Monkey Brand soap, a super-popular cleaning product at the turn of the twentieth century.

An intriguing strap line at the bottom of these simian vignettes catches the eye, and, in those contemplative loo moments, piques an interest for further research.  It’s a fleeting urge, seconds later flushed from thought – the cycle repeating with each visit.  That’s how I know Monkey Brand “WON’T WASH CLOTHES“.

Spotting these blocks of the real thing at the Museum of London  prompted further research.

Of more interest than the technical side of Monkey Brand is the way social and cultural historians, public relations types, and advertising scholars have tried to understand the  what, why, and wherefore of a marketing strategy underpinned by these pseudo-human creatures.

The gist of these socio-cultural analyses is that the monkey was used (consciously and unconsciously) as symbolic commentary on issues around race, gender and class: representing an idea of change in the Victorian mind that went beyond the obvious clean-dirty associations. 

The tens of different Monkey Brand ads produced at this time  are a semiotician’s dream.  For more on this aspect, check out this post at the ‘Notes on the arts and visual culture blog’, and this essay (pdf file) ‘Soft Soaping Empire’.

From the scientific perspective, Monkey Brand ‘Won’t Wash Clothes’ because it was loaded with an abrasive mineral – probably pumice (volcanic ash) – which would almost certainly put a hole through your favourite bib and tucker.  Pumice contains shock-cooled glassy particles, making the soap abrasive. 

While mostly used on dirty grates and rusty bicycles, there’s a hint of an endorsement for use as an occasional toothpaste, although this story from 1908, of an old lady wearing a hole through her denture plate, suggests that’s not such a good idea.

You can still get something along the lines of Monkey Brand today,  this LAVA soap; ;with ‘Pumice Power’: “The hand cleaner of choice for do-it-yourselfers, coal miners, and oil rig workers“.