Chart, The Berlei Type Indicator, cardboard / plastic / metal, Berlei (UK) Ltd, London, England, c. 1930

British version of The Berlei Type Indicator. The chart was designed to be hung on a wall of a corsetiere and approximated the shape of the female torso. It was predominantly black in colour with a green border and headed, "The/BERLEI/Type Indicator". It enabled a fitter to determine the client's precise bust, waist and hip measurements so that she could be fitted with a foundation garment. The chart featured a moveable disc for indicating bust measurement and a moveable pointer for indicating waist measurement. Hip measurement sizes were printed on the border surrounding the moveable disc. An instruction sheet with illustrations has been pasted onto the back of the chart and is headed, "How to Use/The BERLEI Type Indicator".

Overall the chart is very similar to P3645-28/2, Berlei's first Australian version of The Berlei Type Indicator. The names for the five body types are the same: Big Hip, Sway Back, Big Abdomen, Average and Short Below Waist. The colours for the silhouettes of the body shapes and corresponding areas on the moveable disc vary slightly, in this case they are pink (Big Hip), green (Sway Back), yellow (Big Abdomen), orange (Average) and grey (Short Below Waist).

At the bottom of the chart it states that the chart has been granted British patent number 312145/28. All international patents for the chart are listed on the instructions sheet with the name of country, sometimes the date of patent, as well as patent number. They are: Australia, 21 May 1928, 13404; New Zealand, 21 May 1928, 61778; South Africa, 19 December 1928, 1629; Great Britain, 312145; Canada, 300118; USA, 1741335.

Made: Berlei Hestia Ltd; Sydney; 1930

"Berlei (N.Z.) Ltd/Auckland" in black pen on top of the back of the chart; "Inaccurate" in red pencil also on top of the back of the chart.

P3645-28/4

1930

570 mm

410 mm

10 mm