General Plastics
With the origins of this firm dating to 1920, this firm sold carded buttons under multiple brandings, including from 1950, Beauclaire then from 1957, Leda.
In 1957, in partnership with Woolworths, they produced cards of buttons with added thread, a feature they copied from their main rival, G. Herring Pty Ltd, who had regidtered a design card with this feature in 1948. Whilst cheeky, it was declared legal in court, as whilst you can register a design, you can’t register an idea, and the cards were clearly labelled even though both had added thread.
These cards are both made by Woolworths. The one with thread is proably the one resulting in the court case, which named Woolworths as a co-defendant. There are 3 variations of this design. Some have no pricing at the bottom, and the words “Approved by the Federal Council of Dry Cleaners of Australia. 6ft cotton”. Some have a circle printed at the bottom (for a price to be hand written in?) and the same text. The 3rd type is shown above. It has a printed price but states ” Gauranteed Boilproof. Will dry clean. 6ft cotton.” Some are blank on the back but most have the same the of information found on Beauclaire cards, as shown below.
Why so many variations?. Perhaps it was simply that they used several different printers to make the cards?
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