Nostalgia - The Hoffmann's cat

Some years ago when I still did the "Finds of the week" posts, I had some called "I'm a collector" in which I shared vintage items. Over time my collections have mostly stopped growing due to different reasons, but they are still there and still loved. I also have vintage items, some inherited, some gifts, some from fleamarkets, some more interesting than others. So I thought it could be fun to share some of them every, now and then and tell their story.

This collection hardly deserves the name, though, it's more a sub-collection of the cat related items around the place, the ex found them here and there.
Have you ever heard of "Hoffmann's Stärkefabriken", translated "Hoffmann's Starch Factories" (1850 - 1990, after that taken over by an English company)? I don't want to go into its history because that would take a while; this post is mainly about Hoffmann's logo - the grooming cat representing cleanliness.

Fedor Flinzer ("Sächsischer Katzen-Raffael"), Logo HSF, via Wikipedia

The logo was registered nationally in 1876 and internationally in 1922.
It was made into sculptures, it appeared on Hoffmann's products of course, but also on postcards and many different kinds of promotional items of which I only have a few.

by Wewoewi, CC BY-SA 3.0
via Wikimedia Commons

Hoffmann's produced several kinds of starch products. They started out with potato starch, then changed to wheat and corn, later to rice when it could be imported duty-free for the starch production.
The starch could either be used for laundry before ironing or for cooking, some for both.

There was for example the "Silber-Glanz-Stärke" = "Silver shine starch" which made the laundry get "a dazzling white with a silver sheen and elastic, stiff finish".

Yes, this package is still full although it's probably around 70 or 80 years old at least.
I've seen older packages with prices on it - mine shows the weight instead - or saying it can't be used for food which mine doesn't, so I think it's on the older side, also because later packs I've seen looked differently.

Then there was the ordinary rice starch. Yup, this one is also still full except for the bit that fell out from a tiny tear on the back.

It could be used for laundry, but also food according to the instructions on the back including a recipe for "delicious starch pudding" (blancmange style).

One way of advertising were promotional stamps, a lot of companies had these - Steiff for example - this one guarantees us a maximum of purity for this starch.

Of course a child couldn't have a toy shop without stocking Hoffmann's starch. This is probably from the 70s.

"Practical advice" for the housewife - a booklet with instructions on how to starch laundry and with pudding recipes.
My guess is that it's from the 50s.

I also have very old wooden chests in different sizes. The only one which is in a condition to be shown, however, is on top of my wardrobe and has been used as throne and bed by several of my cats. Der Dekan too likes it as a throne. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture in which you could see it well and I wasn't up to climb a ladder.

Now to my favorites.

First there's the perpetual calendar. Don't wonder why it's set to October 25, it hangs high up over a door and I'm not going to climb a ladder every day to set it.
That also explains the weird angle, I didn't climb a ladder to take the picture, either.

These 3D cardboard cats came in different sizes and two colors and as you can see also in different languages, Spanish, Danish, and German in this case.
Interesting is that the cat has turned from a white one into tabbies, something you also see a lot in the promotional postcards. I guess they just couldn't resist the variety of cats, who can?

Last but not least, here are pictures of business meetings on the Stairs to Nowhere.
They must have been very confidential from the looks I got although I think Greebo looked quite casual, maybe it was a lunch meeting 😉

The Fürstenberg China Factory produced collectible plates with cat images for Hoffmann's, some of them after existing pieces of art, but you'd need a big empty wall, even if you'd put up just a few of them. Not only don't I have one of those, you can also imagine what my brat cat would be able to do with porcelain plates on a wall 😂
In 1950, they also made a white porcelain cat after the logo for the 100th year anniversary. I like that one, but definitely not for the price I've seen it offered for. Also - right, brat cat (who's sitting on my wardrobe right now threatening to move over to my DVD shelf 🙄 no peace with that little punk around)!