Keating's Powder
6 CommentsYear: 1910
Item #: 176
Source: The Illustrated London News. May 21, 1910
Keating's Powder is mentioned in an early Agatha Christie short story, 'The Adventure of the Clapham Cook', by Hercule Poirot.
Poirot mentions, "And then there is my winter overcoat, I must lay him aside in the powder of Keatings."
We’ve just found a large (rather rusted but perfectly readable) enamel sign for Keatings Powder in our garden. Would it be of historical interest? Must be at least 100 years old as they stopped trading in 1920
It’s mentioned in Maurice Drake’s 1913 book WO2, ch xiv as an aid to cleanliness onboard their cutter.
It was sent to the troop in 1st WW because if lice on the body in the trenches
Poirot mentioned in in "The Clapham Cook".
I just looked Keating's Powder up, as I've been typing my Dad's memories up again this evening. He writes:
"...and then the crickets came. We had to put Keatings powder down and you could hear the crickets chirping behind the skirting boards, and also the female ones jumping on the floor round the edge in the bedroom! Once one got behind the skirting board near the dining-room fireplace, and Dad tried to catch it on a piece of stick smeared with malt extract, but it licked the extract off the stick much to Father’s disgust." (1930s)