Advertisement for Alfred Dunhill of Euston Road, London N.W (1903)
Alfred Dunhill was in the company’s own words an “innovator,
adventurer, curator, collector, charmer, visionary, stylist, speed
freak, pooh-pooher of borders and nay-sayers…and cutter of dash”.
One of Alfred’s most notable creations were his ‘Bobby Finders’,
a cross between binoculars and motoring goggles. By wearing the device,
the motorist was able ‘to spot a policeman at half a mile, disguised as
a respectable man’. Useful indeed given the temptation there must have
been to break the 12mph speed limit of the day.
The bobby in the poster appears to have the body of a squid. It was easier for mollusc’s to find work in law enforcement in them days.