I’ve wondered on and off about the availability of past HP Sauce advertising, especially in newspapers & magazines. I can only assume that there are many examples of such advertising as there is someone on ebay who has been selling such adverts out of some very old newspapers. Before I go down this route myself, I thought it’d be more interesting to find out what I could discover on my own.

This past weekend I found myself in an old local antique shop (as one does). It was the stereotypical antique shop with shelves everywhere stacked with old books. An older couple sat behind the counter reading, classical music on the radio and incense wafting through the stale air. I approached them and asked if they knew where I might be able to find some old HP Sauce adverts. The man peered up at me, his nose down as he looked over his glasses. “HP Sauce?” he asked. “Yes, perhaps you have some old newspapers or magazines that I could look through?” I responded. The next thing I knew, the woman was issuing him all sorts of directions on where we should look next. Eventually we came across a pile of old magazines in a corner and I was left there to sift through them. There was some fantastic old newspapers there including some copies of the Illustrated London News from the 1930’s. I looked through several issues but came up short, and I was about to leave the shop when I came across a Chatelaine magazine which I quickly flipped through. I didn’t have long to wait before I came across a large colour HP Sauce advert, right smack in the middle of the page! I bought the magazine and I’ve attached the advert for all to enjoy.

I’m quite hooked on this pursuit now. Who knows how far back these ads go? Since finding this particular ad, I have come across some electronic copies of HP Sauce ads published in an Irish newspaper from the 1920s and ’30s which I’ll save for another update. I plan on dedicating an entire gallery towards HP Sauce advertising - it’ll just take me a bit of time to plan out the logistics of it.

You may have noticed that I’ve revamped the sidebar somewhat and have included yet another version of HP Sauce advertising by including a new HP Sauce Commercials section! Yes, those are videos in there! I’ll most likely be tweaking the layout some more, but I hope this helps to bring some more information closer to the front page than they were before.

If you have some HP Sauce history which you would like to contribute to the site, please write. Thanks!

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