Here we have one of the most awaited sights of all, and that is blossom, which first appears as buds, and bursts forth with the arrival of the spring. Cherry blossom is actually supposed to come out in April, but it is getting ever earlier as the climate changes. It is seen in private gardens, but is mainly used in parks and in residential streets, and each single bud makes half a dozen flowers, which then flutter to the floor and leave what will develop into the fruits, beginning in June or July.
This card is usually catalogued as "Cherry Blossom Soap". However that is a brand, and not a maker - though you would never know it from the card, for there is no other identification.
The maker was actually John Gosnell & Co. Ltd, and they have an amazingly complex story, which starts in 1688 with a man called John Price, at Three King Court in London. Now in 1790 it becomes John Price and Sons, but this is too long for it to be the same John Price, he would be a hundred and two by then if he started the company on the day that he was born, so we presume that the "John Price" is his son, or grandson, and the "sons" are his grandsons, or maybe great grandsons. Whomsoever they are, they are now trading, as perfumers, out of Leadenhall Street, still in London, and a few years later, in 1805/6 they move down the road, by quite some way, and change the name to T. Price & Co.
Then it gets a bit confusing as they take on some partners, but seem to be trading out of where they started, Three King Court, Lombard Street. However, this may be simply extracted from their advertising, which could well have cited that original address. The partners were Messrs. Tom Butts, William Patey, and William Froggatt, and they were joined, seven years later, by another man, John Gosnell. He seems not to have got along with Messrs. Butts and Froggatt, because in less than five years the company is listed as Patey, Price, and Gosnell, the Price, presumably, being one of the original founder`s descendants.
In 1818, Mr. Patey disappears, and that leave Messrs, Price and Gosnell, who seem to have gained quite a reputation for fine perfume, and also a Royal client, the Prince Regent, who would become George IV in 1820. Unfortunately the Royal Patronage only lasted ten years, as the King died in 1830. Two years after that, Mr. Gosnell died, and we are not sure what happened to Mr. Price, but the business was split up amongst the Gosnell family, so Mr.. Price must have already been departed, in one sense or another.
Despite this, the business did continue, as John Gosnell & Co. (Successors to Price and Gosnell), and they were still listed as perfumers and distillers, though the last word does not mean alcohol, it means fragrance, which was extracted from flowers. In the 1840s, they are again listed at Three King Court, as "Perfumers to the Queen". This is actually Queen Victoria, who took the throne in 1837 - King George IV and William IV both having died within ten years.
In the 1850s, the company had moved more into the beauty industry - they sold perfumes, soaps, hair brushes and combs - and they also had premises in Liverpool. And in the next decade they expanded overseas, with a shop in Paris. However in 1885 we know that the expansion must have had hit some kind of a problem, for the brush business was sold to another historic company, Kent`s, founded in I777.
The nun image seems to have begun in the 1880s as well, at first being used in newspaper and magazine advertising, then moving on to these little calendar book marks. The first nun book mark calendar that we know of, in black and white, has a calendar for 1889/1890, and the first one in colour comes along in 1894. There is another image they use during this time too, but it is not immediately apparent what it is - however it is a hot air balloon in the shape of a bottle of "Cherry Blossom" perfume, and these balloons were actually flown above the skies of Paris, as advertising. In fact several collectors think that these calendars were taken up to the skies in the balloon and then dropped out over the side of the basket for the crowds below to catch and keep as a souvenir.
We can date some of their cards because if they say the word, or abbreviation for "Limited", they have to be after that status was granted them in 1898. Also by now they were in Upper Thames Street, London, and they moved to Blackfriars Road at about the start of the First World War.
By 1933 the world had changed substantially, and the company was sold. Just at the start of the Second World War, we find this new scion moving down to Sussex where the company still remains.
As for "Cherry Blossom Soap", we know it was still going in the 1950s, but since then it seems to have disappeared - though if you look online you will see the name is used by other companies.