By the mid-1950s Guinness Exports had firmly established the name and hobby of “Labology” through the “Bottle Drops” organised by Colonel A.W. Fawcett in 1954 and 1959 as a marketing stunt to promote sales in the Company’s overseas markets, especially in the USA and Canada.

Col. Fawcett was a director of Guinness Exports and was responsible for marketing. The correspondence reproduced on the following pages gives an insight into how the Labologists Society came into being. It appears that the correspondence was initiated by Peter Dawson, a keen label collector, contacting Col. Fawcett at the end of July 1958, mentioning a leaflet he had seen from Guinness Exports which promoted “Labology” and that for many years he had himself been trying to set up a “Label Collecting Society” together with an offer to help the company promote Labology if he could.

In his reply of 5^th August 1958 (reproduced) Col. Fawcett expresses some surprise as the leaflet was only at the proof stage and had not yet been distributed as part of the planned marketing campaign! Accepting Peter Dawson’s offer of help he reciprocally suggests that Guinness Exports could help establish such a society – perhaps by including information about it along with their marketing leaflet.

However, from the outset he makes it clear that the primary purpose of Guinness Exports’ involvement was commercial and remarks

“…of course, you are quite right – an awful lot of people ask for specimens of labels for lampshades and for other decoration purposes, and I think it would be far from honest if I didn’t say that I, personally’ welcome them just as much as the keen label collector as, of course, coming down to brass tacks, it’s all good advertisement”.

The possible tensions between a commercial and a purist’s view of label collecting is alluded to as he comments further

“…it may be that you will feel that I am a bit of a heretic when I tell you here that on the one hand I am going to develop labology and yet I am not a collector of labels”

The letter also includes a fascinating detail; Peter Dawson had sent a Guinness label where the typescript was upside down, asking if it was a rarity. The Colonel’s reply is revealing;

“In the first place this was a printer’s error and then we allowed that error to persist, and you know it might sound ridiculous, but in our opinion it has paid dividends – the number of people that have pointed it out!”

He continues

“…so I am afraid you haven’t got a rarity in this case as that particular label is printed in millions”

He agrees with Peter’s remarks concerning the difficulties of discovering the history of beer labels saying

“…people don’t seem to be interested in origins, they are more concerned with their day-to-day use of things. That is why I do feel that you have got something in your thought of a Label Society – and for my part, rely on me in any shape of form to help you”.

In a subsequent letter of 3^rd September 1958 the Colonel makes an intriguing aside;

“…it is surprising that life is full of coincidences – I had a letter the other day from a gentleman in Wrexham asking for some of our labels and he tells me he has a world-wide collection of over 40,000 beer labels”

He concludes;

“…So good luck, and rely on me for all possible help I can give you. I really would like to see ‘Labology’ started up in a good way in England and I will do everything to help from that point, and then, having done that, naturally (as I have mentioned in my earlier correspondence) I want to use that publicity in my overseas work”.

Following on from the success of the two Guinness Exports’ “Bottle Drops” of 1954 and 1959, and the invention of the term “Labology” for the hobby of collecting labels by Col. Fawcett, the impetus for the Labologists Society came about as a mutually beneficial arrangement between Guinness Exports and label collectors, initiated by the correspondence from Peter Dawson.

Although Guinness Exports were sympathetic to the wider aims of the Society, the company viewed ‘Labology’ and presumably its involvement with the Society, as primarily a marketing device.

As Col. Fawcett so clearly put it “I have got to be realistic and look at all the gimmicks and suchlike first from their advertising value and then from the sincerity of any definite collector’s viewpoint”.