STRATNOID Chrome Powder Compact With Hand Painted HMS Victory Ship Design, Original Art Deco order Compact By Stratton, Vintage 1920s

Here is a simply splendid vintage powder compact, to take loose powder only, manufactured by the famous Stratton company back in the late 1920s or very early 1930s under their original trade mark 'Stratnoid'. This has a beautiful foil-backed hand-painted image of Nelson's famous warship, HMS Victory, in dry dock at Portsmouth. Stratnoid used the technique of hand-painting or transfer printing images on the underside of a circular plastic lid and mounting them over a metallic foil. This gives the sky a pearly blue quality. I love this as it's so utterly colourful - the colours are gorgeous and the whole compact is in pretty good condition for its truly great age.

Inside the original Stratnoid mechanism can be seen - a rotating half-moon aperture to let the powder be accessed - (see photos order 3.4 & 5). The mirror is clear with no age spotting or misting. The reverse has an engine-turned design of wavy stripes with 'Made in England' engraved at the bottom. This immensely collectible compact measures 5.2cms in diameter, or 2 inches if you prefer.

CONDITION:-
This compact is the second one of two I have with this HMS Victory design. The other one is in slightly better condition than this one. However, this is still in pretty good condition considering it's about 80 years old - it has lost it's little front catch which means it is a little harder to open and doesn't snap closed like you'd expect. There is a slight dullness to the colours in the hand-painted lid but nothing serious.
This has been used in the past and therefore there may be vestiges of the original powder, but it has been cleaned out, and the mirror is in good condition with no spotting or cracks.
My other listing is here so that you can compare the two - this one is a little cheaper as it isn't in quite as good condition.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/742648342

HMS VICTORY
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship.

In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and, astonishingly, is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission, with 241 years' service as of 2019.

STRATTON
For stylish ladies of a certain age, British company Stratton needs no introduction. In the powder heydays of the 1950s and 60s, Stratton was the most recognised and prolific of the world's powder compact manufacturers.
Stratton started out in 1860 as a knitting needle manufacturer, and marketed their first powder compacts in 1923. These early compacts were imported, part-finished from the USA, and given the less than glamorous name “Stratnoid” – the same brand as the company's knitting needles!

By the early 1930s, the compacts became “Stratton”s, borrowing the name from the hero in a popular novel. I'd love to discover which novel… I imagine a Mr. Darcy type in a high period romance! The rebrand was a success and by the mid 30s, Stratton produced over half of all compacts used in the British cosmetics industry.

However, in 1940, disaster struck. Germany's WWII blitz of Britain claimed four of the five Stratton factories. Production was forced to a halt. Manufacture resumed after the war, but British shortages meant that raw materials, particularly metals, were in short supply. Compacts of this time can even be found made from aircraft alloy.

Luckily, the arrival of the 1950s brought major success for Stratton. The booming love for cosmetics, particularly the powdered and polished Hollywood look, made compacts a must. Stratton introduced their now famous “self-opening lids”. These inner lids hold loose powder safely, and unclasp automatically as you open the compact. Patented in 1948, the innovation was designed to prevent chips in nail polish… and became a major selling point!

By the 1960s, there were Stratton agents worldwide and the company thrived. Designs changed with trends in cosmetics – the growing popularity of cream (pressed) powder drove new patents, including a great sounding 1956 innovation for “Improvements relating to toilet powder boxes or compacts”. Very Mad Men! “Glamorizer” designs were marketed for pressed powder refills, “Convertibles” for both loose and pressed powders… And artists began to sign the tremendous range of lid designs produced.

But, sadly, you can guess the rest. The 1970s brought radical changes in makeup, and this time the look was au natural… a body blow for powder. Stratton acquired many of their struggling rivals, but failed to reposition quickly enough. By the early 1990s the once global company had become a niche manufacturer, and went on to be sold a number of times.
Today, the company was still based in Birmingham, UK, and still manufacturing.