European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The product at the center of the litigation was ' blacking '; in modern terms, black polish for
leather. It was used primarily on boots and shoes and was much in demand from those who
walked the dirty London streets of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A
particularly intense shine was provided by so-called ' Japan Blacking,' the name alluding to
the glossy appearance of Japanese lacquer work. The constituents of blacking varied, and
while there was evidently a trade-in secret recipes for blacking, the common ingredients
would have included a mixture of black coloring made of powdered black bone, oil from
sperm whales, and oil of vitriol. The partnership of Day and Martin was established in
December 1802, when Londoner Charles Day and Yorkshireman Benjamin Martin, then of
Maiden Lane, started selling Japan Blacking according to a recipe Martin had acquired1.On
1 January 1808, Benjamin Martin retired and returned to Doncaster. Charles Day paid £
7,000 for the recipe and £ 3,643 for his share of the partnership. The agreement allowed Day
to continue to trade with the name ‘ Day and Martin ’.