Gustafsberg Sweden Gnome Plate

[amycats2]

Looking for help with this gnome soup plate. It has the Gustafsberg with anchor backstamp but what is the box with the baby on the back? I think the box says Proton on it. Anyone ever see this before?

Thanks!

Amy

[maxine*j]

I can't make out anything much on the box, but at a guess:  Perhaps this plate was made for the company that makes the baby food (cereal, or whatever) to use as a promotional premium or give-away.   So the company's usual advertising image / logo of box and baby was printed on the plate.   Just a thought.

[argon38]

This ad for the product appeared in several Swedish newspapers in 1913:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Proton-Hafremj%C3%B6l&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

This is the text, based on Google Translate:

"Vårgårda Proton-Hafremjöl

Children, clever as well as healthy, as well as convalescents need more than others powerful and at the same time digestible nutrition. Vårgårda PROTON-OATMEAL, due to its rich protein content and composition, is devoted to meeting the greatest demands in this respect. The children eat it with a lot of craving for long periods of use.

Vårgårda has exclusive rights for the factory addition of Proton to oatmeal.
Recommended by prominent Swedish doctors.
Sold in 1/2 kg. Packages from 55 öre in well-stocked grocery stores."

From what I can gather, "Proton"  was a desiccated milk product that appeared on the Swedish market around 1903. This "Proton-Hafremjöl"  product advertised by the Vårgårda company in 1913 evidently involved adding Proton to oatmeal.

[argon38]

I haven't attempted to Google translate the rhymes on the plate, but there appear to be a lot of references to "gröt" - Swedish for porridge or oatmeal. So it does seem very likely that the plate was designed to promote Proton-Hafremjöl.