GRAND-HALLET

Belgian collector Yvette Darden was surrounded by a pile of colored tins, with items ranging from Chocolate, toffee, coffee and rice to tobacco, talc and shoe polish, and come from as far away as India.

Yvette Darden, 83, has collected nearly 60,000 vintage tin boxes from around the world since she began her collection nearly 30 years ago.

The collection, which now occupies four houses, all began with a Cte d’Or chocolate box, painted with a painting of a white girl in a blue hat, Darden told Reuters, in a medieval watermelon. stood among the carefully arranged tin boxes he owns. to his house.
Later, Tin came to her, she said. “I didn’t go anywhere. I wasn’t traveling. People still think I’ve traveled a lot. It quickly became known (that I collected boxes). Occasionally, I would leave for my husband’s office. Right after, someone showed up to give me something,” said Darden, who lives in Grand-Hallet in Belgium’s Liege province.

one of the greatest of the Dardenne treasures There is an intricately patterned box from 1868 depicting an emblem with two horses on top, designed to hold biscuits made by Huntley & Palmers of Reading, England.

According to Darden, it is believed to be the first box with a lithograph, the collection of which can be viewed by appointment.