Bouillon Cube Tin, Maggi, Netherlands, 1950s-1960s

A square tin for Maggi bouillon cubes, holding 100 cubes of 3 grams each, dating from the 1950s-1960s. The front panel shows the familiar Maggi girl with braided hair and a steaming soup bowl, surrounded by a geometric pattern in bright yellow and red on a brown ground, with the text "Van nut voor elke keuken" (useful in every kitchen). The inner lid carries a Maggi trading stamp promotional sticker. The tin is in good condition for its age, with signs of use and localised paint loss consistent with the period.

Maggi was founded in 1872 by Swiss food pioneer Julius Maggi, who set out to develop affordable, nutritious convenience products for the working class. In the Netherlands the brand operated for many years under the name Maggi's Producten Maatschappij N.V. Amsterdam. The braided-hair girl is one of the most recognisable figures in twentieth-century Dutch food advertising, appearing for decades on tins, print advertisements and enamel signs. Tins from this period are collected both as graphic design objects and as documents of postwar Dutch kitchen culture.