Description:
Elsewhere in the Memory Box is a vintage tin of adhesive dressings with a famous brand name. This vintage tin is rarer, in that most people will not have heard of Crela Products of Manchester. The company was dissolved at the end of the 20th century and information about it is sparse. It appears to have been a small family-run business marketing first aid dressings.
The tin featured here still has some of the original contents. The tin shows that it held elastic adhesive dressings and in the pictures you can see the stretchable skin coloured fabric. It appears to be a single piece, rather than assorted sized plasters. As will be shown later, the contents were originally wrapped in paper with the following instructions: ‘Cut to size required. Remove the face muslin, apply the pad over the injured part and place the adhesive edge firmly to the skin’. The lint pad was impregnated with boric acid as an antiseptic. A separate entry on this site features boric acid ointment. Likewise the plaster contained zinc oxide.
The dressing was not waterproof, but Crela produced a plastic, waterproof version of the plaster in a red tin. The firm also produced cotton wool and adhesive tape. The size of the packaging, together with the instructions suggest the dressings were for domestic use and not for health professionals.
At the time of writing one website is selling Crela dressings in a Motorist’s first aid kit within an attractive leather case featuring a 1909 Rolls Royce. Sellers of vintage Crela dressings believe they date from the 1950s or 1960s.
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