Questions about one of Australia's earliest trademarks - the Arnott's parrot. Was it a copy of the American parrot on Dozier Weyl's Cracker Company's material?

One of the many advertising signs and mirrors in the kitchen at Lansdowne Street, signed by the maker: H. Rousel and marked 'the property of Wm. Arnott Ltd'.

Purchased in NYC around 1974, this folding card give-away shows a parrot that is almost identical to the Australian icon. So checking the dates has proved interesting. Dozier Weyl is famous for their 'animal crackers' that still have great market traction as a Nabisco product today. There's a link to their other products further into the blog text - make sure you view to see great 19th century 'biscuit' thinking.

The Arnott's Australian archive states: "The company became one

of the earliest Australian producers to advertise its goods under its own brand name,

marketed under its trademarked parrot logo first introduced in 1888". The USA Library of Congress has a 60 page catalogue dated 1881 with the parrot beautifully displayed - long before it was copied here - click here.

What has always intrigued me was the use of Australian birds in another local biscuit company, Morrows Limited originally from Cairns, North Queensland. They were merged with the bird in 1956 as Arnott Morrow Ltd but as far back as 1930's they produced this set of trade cards that I have in the collection.

A blog reader from USA - Ronald Doerr dropped me a line and kindly scanned the postcard in his collection, larger .pdf here.