Dobbins' medicated toilet soap poster

Poster showing four well dressed women in a parlour, one of them is holding open a box of "Dobbins' Medicated Toilet Soap." Two of the women are wearing coats and gloves as though they just arrived, the fourth woman is seated holding an open book of sheet music. Looks beautiful in any home, office or beauty shop. Until the Industrial Revolution, soapmaking was conducted on a small scale and the product was rough. In 1780, James Keir established a chemical works at Tipton, for the manufacture of alkali from the sulphates of potash and soda, to which he afterwards added a soap manufactory. The method of extraction proceeded on a discovery of Keir's. In 1790, Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to make alkali from common salt. Andrew Pears started making a high-quality, transparent soap in 1807 in London. His son-in-law, Thomas J. Barratt, opened a factory in Isleworth in 1862.