Mazawattee Tea Company

The death of John Boon Densham at the age of 72 at his home in Croydon in 1886 ended the first period of the firm's growth. John Lane Densham was immediately made a partner and tackled the problem of the firm. He decided to supply its tea in packets to retailers and in a different way by inventing a name for the firm. Being a great advocate of advertising, he reckoned that something quite unusual might be the answer and went to the Guildhall Library to get ideas.

He came up with the idea of using the word "Mazathawattee", perhaps based on the Urdu "maza", which means "pleasure or fun" originally from Persian, and the Sinhalese "wattee", which means "a garden". This was shortened to "Mazawattee" and duly registered as a trademark for retail sales in January 1887. This was merely a start for he then had the idea of using a standard photo to advertise the brand. It is to many modern eyes a rather gloomy thing showing an aged, bespectacled and somewhat toothless grandmother with her supposed granddaughter and the compulsory cup of tea.

This photo became popular but was adjusted somewhat from the original photo. The photographer was M.B. Parkinson, a New York City photographer. The model for the grandmother was Mary Ann Clarke, the wife of an Islington bootmaker. The model for the child was to have been her granddaughter but she was too shy, and the photographer had to enlist the aid of the little girl next door, Alice Emma Nichols. The picture was called "Old Folks at Home".

It was not long before the firm's name was everywhere, stressing the quality of Mazawattee to counteract the criticism of "doctoring" that had been levelled at some teas. A contract was made with the railway companies so that eye-catching enamelled signs could be fixed on every railway station platform in Britain. Ceylon tea had been introduced to Britain in 1875 and Mazawattee concentrated for some years on this type of tea and at one time named itself the Mazawattee Ceylon Tea Company. High prices were obtained by dealers, especially for the hand-selected leaf buds of good quality tea known as "Golden Tips". By 1891 this bubble burst and normality returned.

Although the parent company of Densham & Sons handled the loose tea trade from 49/51 Eastcheap, by 1894 Mazawattee had its own offices together with warehouses and vaults in a large building erected at the top of Tower Hill, very near the Tower of London. This was so tall that it blocked the view to the east from the adjacent church of All Hallows by the Tower, not to the liking of the church authorities.2 The Mazawattee building was a perfect venue for viewing big events such as the opening of Tower Bridge on 30 June 1894.

In May 1896 the firm became a public limited company, the Mazawattee Tea Company Ltd, which acquired the Mazawattee Ceylon Tea Company and Densham & Sons (the wholesale tea and coffee dealing part of the business). The capital was £550,000 (= £21.4 million in 2009 terms) in 5% cumulative preference shares of £5 each and 350,000 ordinary shares of £1 each (= £13.6 million in 2009 terms). The four brothers received 13,333 preference shares and 116,666 ordinary shares, a total of £183,333 (= £7.1 million in 2009 terms). The remainder of the 26,667 preference shares and 233,334 ordinary shares were offered for sale. As part of this arrangement and so that the two oldest brothers, Edward and Alfred could retire early, £30,000 each (= £1.2 million in current terms) was paid to John Lane and Benjamin, and John Lane Densham soon became chairman.