Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story tells of the famous baking powder, patents, trademarks, the hugely popular cookbook, renowned factory and gardens, the family behind the brand, and the landmarks founder Thomas Edmonds gifted to Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Authored by Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson and Richard Wolfe, the book uses more than 500 images to help document the Edmonds family story alongside the evolution of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most distinctive brands and its domestic trademark – the Edmonds Sure to Rise logo.
About 36 years ago co-author historian Richard Wolfe first wrote about the Edmonds label, which was reproduced in his 1987 book Well Made New Zealand: A Century of Trademarks.
The slogan – Sure to Rise – was also an important contributor to the product’s success.
Over about four years of research, co-author Kate Parsonson, great-great-granddaughter of the Edmonds’ founders, met many third and fourth cousins for the first time, gathering Edmonds’ stories and photographs, noting memories and memorabilia that had been passed down through generations.
They went on to have four sons who all worked in the factory and four daughters. Those neighbours subsequently became the ‘Friends of the Edmonds Gardens’.
Interested in history, and culture around cooking, Kate trialled the odd recipe from the 1908 first edition of the famous Edmonds Sure to Rise Cookery Book.
Peter also co-designed Sure to Rise with The Gas Project’s Gary Stewart. The Edmonds Cookery Book – given away free from 1908 with beautiful early covers – is surely one of the most potent marketing initiatives in New Zealand’s history.
Credit: sunlive.co.nz
