Posted 11 years ago
wendisattic
(8 items)
Help, cannot find any history on this item, think it is 1920's or so
it is a small colored enamel pin Advertising what???
Anyone know the story of this cute item?
Thank you
W
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I have to say I have seen this girl before but for the life of me I can't remember who she represented . Nice post ! If it comes to me I will post what I can't remember :-)
"Know your onions" phrase has a meaning of knowledge so it is not the vegetable that I believe it means she knows something well .
The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966, which was published a year after his death. If I knew as much etymology as he did I could certainly claim to 'know my onions', and it is tempting to assume that this is where the phrase originated.
If the 'onions' referred to in the phrase is indeed human rather than vegetable, there is another Mr. Onions that could be our man. S. G. Onions (they were strong on initials in those days) created sets of coins which were issued to English schools from 1843 onwards. These were teaching aids intended to help children learn £.s.d. (pounds, shillings and pence). They looked similar to real coins and had inscriptions like '4 Farthings make 1 Penny' or, as in the example pictured, '12 Pence make 1 shilling'. We can imagine that 'knowing your Onions' might be coined, so to speak, in those circumstances.
The first known use of 'know your onions' in print, in the 1920s, tends to argue against either of the above men being involved. While it is true that the phrase originated at a time when C. T. Onions had established a reputation, the match between the phrase and his name is just a coincidence. Know your onions is in fact an American phrase. There are many references to it in print there from the 1920s onward, but none in the UK or elsewhere until the middle of the century; for example, this from Harper's Magazine, March 1922:
"Mr. Roberts knows his onions, all right."
Mary Jane Buster Browns girlfriend maybe ? That is a guess but they did use the tie and hat like she wore .
can you email me re the "she knows her onions" pin
i know who she is jpjrobin at aol.com
pinman,please share,it's surely not a government secret?Or are you trying to buy it from wendisattic?Either way it looks like your not getting the job done!lol
Yes please do share who she is on site pinman I agree with gargoyle if you know tell us all .
Sally Brown ? From song 1926
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBmhOWtmDe4
She is from a advertising company in England and her saying is 'Do you Know your Onions" it is just a British thing. Little pin was bought by a man in England who collects these little girls.