Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason (F&M) is an other historical brand or trade mark that is well known and associated with a certain standard of their products. 

Apparently Mr. Fortnum was a footman in the household of Queen Anne, one of my favourite queens as you might remember because of the Statute of Anne, and he was an enterprising type of person because he saw that there was a lot of half used wax candles that he might turn a profit from selling, since there was an insistence from the Royal family of new candles every night.

He soon went into partnership with his landlord and thus founded Fortnum & Mason. The shop was founded in St. James’s market in 1707. Fortnum's grandson went into service of Queen Charlotte and this affiliation with the Royal court led to an increase in business.

F&M claim to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738. The store started it’s stocking of luxury food items at provided food both for soldiers at war and were called for to provide the food for the Royal Court’s prestigious functions. 

Apparently they also sent broth to the hospitals managed by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean war and in 1886 F&M became sole stockists of baked beans after having bought the entire stock of H. J. Heinz.

The four tonne clock on the front was installed in 1951 by a Canadian Businessman, who owned F&M,  as a tribute to the founders Fortnum & Mason. The clock has two mechanical figures, 1,2 metre tall, that on the hour come out and bow to each other with music playing in the background. 

»In March 2012, the Queen, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge made their first official joint visit to Fortnum & Mason. During this visit, they were each presented with their own personalised hampers.[12] The Queen opened the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon on the fourth floor«. - Wikipedia

Honestly I wouldn’t mind being sent a personalised F&M hamper. Like this one:

The Chocolate Lover’s Hamper…. Mmmm