The Smoking Gun

…to modern eyes the petticoated boy draped along the cigarette barrel of the cruiser while casually igniting it is incongruous to say the least and rather too active an involvement.

Cavander’s followed Ogden’s lead in employing the bayonet’s advertising thrust, albeit twenty-four years later – this time with accompanying rifle and a war well established.

In January 1900 Britain was at war in the Transvaal, and Ogden’s re-deployed their 1897 Maxim gun advert, suitably updated and unsubtle in its promotion of the brand.

In September 1899 Britain was about to return to war in South Africa and Ogden’s leaped aboard the jingoistic wave