Biscuit tins became a thing in Britain after 1860 when the first time the Refreshment Houses Act and the Treaty of Commerce allowed printed paper labels to be affixed to food and beverages. Once colorful, eye-catching labels could be added to food packaging, new processes were developed to make it easier. In 1877, offset lithography was patented that made printing directly onto tin containers of various shapes possible.

Decorative tinware took off, reaching its pinnacle of intricate, creative design before World War I. Lewis Carrol got on the biscuit tin trade in 1891 when manufacturers Barringer, Wallis and Manners contacted him with the idea of making an Alice in Wonderland-themed tin. It would be printed with polychrome scenes based on the illustrations by John Tenniel for Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found there, the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland published in 1871. The original illustrations were printed in black and white, so the idea of a vividly colored version decorating a cookie tin seemed a can’t-miss idea to appeal to children and their parents who had grown up with the books.

Barringer, Wallis and Manners created a tin with a rectangular base , straight sides and rounded corners. The sides and outside of the lid were printed with the labelled illustrations : The Red King Asleep, The Battle Between the Red and White Knights, Alice the White King and the Messenger, Alice and the Fawn, Alice and the Red Queen, Tweedledee & Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty Offering his Hand to All and The White Knight Sliding Down the Poker.

Tenniel had illustrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and found Carroll a micromanaging tyrant, so much so that he refused Carroll’s first request that he illustrate the sequel, and only agreed after he received assurances that he could work at his own pace. Barringer, Wallis and Manners soon found themselves on the business end of Carroll’s control freakery and whiplash-inducing changeability.

The initial offer was Carroll would receive 50 gift tins. He declined on the grounds that it was too many and he’d look like a sellout. Then he changed his mind and wrote them that actually 50 wasn’t enough and he needed 100 to give away to his friends and family, including Alice Liddell, model for Alice in the books. Then he got mad that they included a note that the tin was compliment of “Charles Dodgson,” exposing his real name to the factory workers. Then he got mad that the tin came with a W.R. Jacob & Co label on the inside of the lid. They were the makers of the biscuits so naturally they added a label to that effect, but Carroll’s preferred cookies were Huntley and Palmers so he was offended.

Then he did something so deranged, the poor tin makers must have wanted to choke him. He insisted that the rest of the tins should be sent to his recipients WITHOUT ANY BISCUITS INSIDE. Yes, he was sending gift biscuit tins to friends and family, many of them children, so they would open the lid with all the enthusiasm a kid can muster for cookies, only to find they’d been sent an empty container.

Today the Alice biscuit tins are prized collector’s items, found in museums including the V&A, the Guildford Museum and the Museum of Oxford. One came up for auction on the 17th with a pre-sale estimate of £600 – £900. It sold for £2900 even though there’s small but noticeable areas of damage to the lithography. The story of Lewis Carroll vs. the biscuit tin has made them all the more desirable.

A group of three large lead ingots from a 17th century shipwreck have been discovered at the site of an offshore wind farm 75 miles off the Norfolk coast. The ingots weigh about 155 lbs apiece and were likely exports from Darbyshire mines destined for mainland Europe.

The ingots were discovered at the site of Hornsea 3 in the North Sea which when completed will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The seabed of the entire site is being extensively investigated before construction begins. Investigators gather detailed information from soil composition, to environmental data to marine life surveys in order to identify sensitive areas and potential hazards.

Marine investigators discovered the ingots at a depth of 130 feet while scanning the bed for unexploded ordnance. Instead of bombs, they found three lead ingots stacked in their original position on the ship. The wreck itself was gone, with only a few surviving timbers visible under the ingots.

Each ingot is stamped with a different mark – ‘IS’, ‘EB’ and ‘H’ – similar to ingots found on the 1664 wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman Kennemerland off the Shetland Islands. The Hornsea 3 vessel might also have been from the Netherlands.

At the time England produced vast quantities of lead, in particular from Derbyshire and Peak District mines, with much of it shipped across the North Sea from Hull and London to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The wreck found at Hornsea 3 lies directly on the Hull-Netherlands route.

Lead has been mined in Derbyshire since the Roman period. The Peak District mines were the primary lead producers in Europe during the Middle Ages. By the 17th century, the mining and selling lead was Britain’s second most important trade (wool was number one). It was used in every building from roof to window to pipes, and the raw ore formed into ingots for the export market.

The Hornsea 3 ingots will be housed at the Peak District Mining Museum in Matlock, Derbyshire, which is dedicated to the region’s millennia-old mining history.