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How the British Empire Spells Bovril

Print
1901 (designed), circa 1902 (printed)
Artist/Maker
S. H. Benson (makers)
Bovril Ltd. (commissioned by)
Dolman, Ernest (artist)
Place of origin
England (made)

Colour lithograph pictorial advertisement depicting outlines of countries rearranged to spell the word 'Bovril'. All 68 countries depicted were under British colonial rule at the time of printing.

Object details

Categories
Prints
Advertising
Colonialism and Empire
Object type
Print
TitleHow the British Empire Spells Bovril
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Colour Lithograph
Brief description
Pictorial advertisement designed by Ernest Dolman for Bovril: 'How the British Empire Spells Bovril'. Great Britain, circa 1902.
Physical description
Colour lithograph pictorial advertisement depicting outlines of countries rearranged to spell the word 'Bovril'. All 68 countries depicted were under British colonial rule at the time of printing.
DimensionsVarious sizes.
Object history
A version of this advertisement was created to mark the coronation of Edward VII in 1902. The Illustrated London News first ran the advert on February 2, 1902, and again later in the month with some of the missing country names displayed. In October they had another revealing all the country names. It was also reproduced in black and white throughout 1902 in 'The Strand' and 'The Graphic' magazines.
It was also a winner of one of the 'Ads. Of the Month' titles in 'Advertising World' magazine, February 1902, where reviewers described it as 'hard to beat. It is distinctive, and, at the same time, presents such a curious appearance as to cause anybody opening the page to examine it more closely to see what it really is. The result is that the design causes a lot of talk and an extraordinary amount of publicity is achieved'.
Subject depicted
Colonialism
Association
England
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria & Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illlustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1919, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921.
  • The following excerpts are from an essay entitled 'A Study of Advertising and Empire through Bovril’s 1902 Cartographic Design' by Anna Kallen Talley (RCA/V&A MA History, January 2020): 'Bovril’s promotion as a health product during the height of the empire situates it within the political ideology of social imperialism, wherein social programs, such as advocating for better health, accompany imperialist policies. As part of this ideology, some goods were marketed to the British public by relating the strength of imperialist Britons abroad to consumption of products by their fellow citizens at home. Even the name of the company reflects this idea. ‘Bovril’ derives from 'The Coming Race', an 1871 novel by Edward Lytton. In the book, ‘vril’ is a force harnessed by a subterranean master race in order to gain supernatural powers. It is clear that Johnston Lawson Johnston (the Scottish dietician who founded 'Bovril' in 1874) hoped to relate the nutritional benefits of his product and ‘vril’, while insinuating a racism in line with that of the era’s Social Darwinists who used the concept of racial superiority as a justification for imperial expansion. From its production to its name, Bovril related itself to the British Empire from the company’s inception. This relationship becomes even more apparent in Bovril’s turn of the century advertising campaigns, which make apparent how the company hoped to use their ties with the empire to promote their product to the domestic market.' The advertisement is described in its (1901) copyright file as 'Drawing: the word "Bovril" formed of outlines of the various British possessions' (The National Archives, Kew, COPY 1/185/318.)
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.946-1919

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O828155/how-the-british-empire-spells-print-dolman-ernest/
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