The Green Canister

In Chapter 9 of Dragon ‘Self-Preservation’, a young Francis Light and his friend James Scott visit an emporium near Covent Garden, ‘the Green Canister’ and meet its proprietor, Mrs Phillips and her assistant Mrs Perkins.

‘…From the exterior, there was little to single out this shop from the others on the street, save the signboard which gave no clue as to the goods within, nor did the name itself suggest any particular product. The twin bow windows that flanked the entrance were paned in bull’s eye glass, obscuring the interior except for a row of porcelain statues on the sill that on closer inspection proved to be an array of naked Greek goddesses…’ Dragon p. 151

I stumbled upon the Green Canister and its colourful history during research for my novels. It was too good a story not to use. The Green Canister on Half Moon Street (now Bedford Street) just off Covent Garden was renowned as a purveyor of what was then euphemistically called ‘Venusian’ wares. We would now use less figurative terms – it was an 18th century adult store. In the 1700s Covent Garden was a bustling market by day but at night had a reputation for scandalous behaviour and was famously referred to as ‘The Great Square of Venus’. It was the site of numerous popular theatres, taverns and brothels. No doubt the Green Canister and its goods were much in demand amongst Covent Garden clients.

Covent Garden market c 1726 by Pieter Angillis

The emporium is said to have been owned by a remarkably enterprising Mrs Phillips and may possibly have opened as far back as 1732. Sources on the subject are conflicting, making it difficult to say with any authority where the true origins of the shop and its owner lay. Yet even with the lack of sound evidence, The Green Canister gives us a fascinating glimpse into the underbelly of London life in the eighteenth century.

Mrs Phillips herself is often identified as Mrs Teresia Constantia Phillips (known to her friends as ‘Con’), one of the most notorious courtesans of the day. It is said that she opened the Green Canister as a side line, using a large sum of money she had received as a pay-off from a former lover who wished to ensure her silence. Later when she married her third husband and went with him to Kingston, Jamaica, she either sold or handed over the running of the business to her assistant, Mrs Perkins, who became the next proprietor. In one version of events, however, Mrs Phillips returned to London in the 1770s with the intention of resuming her former trade only to discover that Mrs Perkins was unwilling to surrender such a prosperous business. Their subsequent disagreement resulted in a famous public fallout.

Undaunted, Mrs Phillips decided she would have her revenge. Setting up in competition, she opened a new wholesale business located in one of the most fashionable districts of London, just off Leicester Square, where many of the richest and most notable men and women had their homes. Her new address was quite a step up from Covent Garden. From Number 5 Orange Court, Leicester Fields (corner of Orange and Castle Streets today), she established herself as the doyenne of the business, the name Phillips soon becoming synonymous with her most popular item of sale – the condom.

Mrs. Phillips opens her new warehouse in Leicester Square

Leaflets from the early 1780s show that she was retailing ‘original’ Phillips condoms out of the Phillips warehouse from where she supplied to retailers all over Britain and Europe, claiming that ‘with 35 years’ experience’ in selling her ‘machines’ (as they were also known), her products could be trusted above all. It was quite the advertising campaign. This far sighted entrepreneur even ventured into the mail order business. Recognising that many men of the East and West India Companies or stationed overseas with the Army and Navy made purchases before their outward voyages, she soon began exporting directly to the colonies!

A more detailed flyer c 1785 for Phillips Warehouse that suggests rivals were already questioning her authenticity

History does not record how Mrs Perkins fared against this fierce competition. She seems to have been a much less flamboyant character than her erstwhile boss, less inclined to relish a public standoff. Even her advertisements were more discreetly worded, referring to her best-selling items merely as a ‘box of C….ms’. Note the Latin and French quoted in the advertisement below meant to add a more genteel touch. No doubt in the end she too had to purchase her goods from the Phillips warehouse like everyone else – or face losing business.

Mary Perkins and her rival advertisement

So, what then did Mrs Phillips sell? The main staples, of course, were ‘preservatives’, or ‘cundums’ as they were often called at the time, allegedly after a Doctor – or possibly Colonel – Condom who may have first introduced these useful contraceptive aids. The condoms were made of sheep intestine, secured with colourful silk ribbons. It is said that Mrs Phillips ensured that each one was hand tested for leaks by blowing into them. Then they were soaked in water to make them softer. In her advertising material she proclaimed that they were ideal against ‘both pregnancy and disease’. Mrs Phillips was doing quite the public service!

It wasn’t just men who were interested in what was on sale; women of means were also catered for, although whether they visited the premises in person, received private viewings, or relied on the mail order service is not recorded. Her shop was stocked with many love aids that targeted her female customers, including widow’s comforters (use your imagination!), love potions, ‘arousal’ pills and powders, contraceptives creams and sponges, and the like, all meant to enhance the art of love. Items for even the more esoteric taste were also on offer, such as the ‘flagellation’ devices that were apparently made to order!

To guard yourself from shame or fear,

Votaries to Venus hasten here

None of our wares ‘ere found a flaw

Self-preservation’s Nature’s law!

[An advertising jingle for The Green Canister]

But that is only one version of the story. Many historians doubt that Teresa Constantia Phillips and the Mrs Phillips of the Green Canister are in fact the same person. A few glaring inconsistencies cast doubt on the authenticity of this account. First of all, Con Phillips, the courtesan, was born around 1709, which would mean that in her most active years as a businesswoman in the 1780s, she would have been at least seventy years old, a great age to be still at work. Even more compelling is the fact that Con Phillips is said to have died January 1765 in Kingston, Jamaica; her burial certificate can be seen below. Nor does Con Phillips make any mention of owning this shop in her own ‘tell-all’ autobiography, although that in itself may not be conclusive proof; the three volumes are full of dubious claims and may be largely invention. The mystery continues.

Are the two Mrs Phillips the same woman? Did Con Phillips not die in Jamaica in 1765 as reported? Perhaps she returned to London impoverished hoping to revive her previously successful trade, faking her death to shake off her debtors in the colonies. Or did the Green Canister’s Mrs Phillips merely imply that she was the courtesan in her later years to raise her public profile? The news of Con Phillips’ death may not have been generally known in London. Her star had already faded in the colonies where she reputedly died a pauper’s death. Nor would it be beyond the wily Mrs Phillips to see profit in ‘adopting’ the name of a glittering socialite courtesan like Con Phillips. But why this second Mrs Phillips initially handed over to Mrs Perkins around the late 1760s only to return again some ten years later is puzzling. Did she marry again? Decide to retire and enjoy her profits? Or, as one of the handbills suggests, was she tempted out of retirement by popular demand? As for Mrs Perkins, did the un-mourned death of Con Phillips mean that she simply took over The Green Canister while another canny rival decided to style herself Mrs Phillips returned from Jamaica hoping to claim the shop for herself? Whatever lies behind the complexities, the many questions remain unanswered, making this a tale ripe for a novelist’s imagination!

It must be admitted, however, that Phillips is a common British surname, and the similarity may be accidental. On the other hand, Mrs Phillips of the Green Canister may always have been an assumed name, yet another self-promotion of the enterprising owner from the start to raise awareness of her business and make herself the talk of London by implying she was Teresa Constantia Phillips. Or perhaps later historians simply jumped to the wrong conclusion? There is no way of knowing unless or until some previously unknown evidence is unearthed. Yet it does not detract from either story. Both the Mrs Phillips were women who lived on their wiles and instincts and made fortunes by exploiting to their own advantage one of the only independent careers allowed to women throughout history – that of the oldest profession!

Teresia Constantia ‘ Con’ Phillips (1709-65)

It is almost impossible to be sure about any detail of the scandalous life of this great courtesan. Most of what we know is based on her own autobiography ‘An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs Teresia Constantia Phillips’ published in at least three volumes in 1748. Her early life is particularly shrouded in mystery for the story she gives is hardly credible and may be an entire invention based on people she came to know in her years as a courtesan. She herself suggests that the material in her book was considered so libellous – or mendacious – that she was forced to publish it herself.

Con Phillips claims to have been well educated, funded by her ‘godmother’ the Duchess of Bolton, attending the prestigious Mrs Filler’s Boarding School, Prince Court, Westminster where she learned how to conduct herself in refined society. Shortly afterwards, however, in typical melodramatic roman à clef style, she was seduced and abducted by a man whose pseudonym was ‘Thomas Grimes’. He was in fact a wealthy aristocrat well known in society. Once he was finished with her, Con was thrown aside and fell on hard times. Still only 13 years old, all alone and facing debtors’ prison, Con made a clandestine marriage to a man who was himself already married, unbeknownst to her. This was the first of her five husbands, all of them bigamous. In between husbands (or often at the same time) she had numerous affairs, strings of lovers, and made and spent fortunes, often travelling around Europe whilst living a life of astonishing opulence and excess. Some of these details are verifiable, for the records of her marriages exist, but whether many of her adventures are true is impossible to know.

Teresia Constantia Phillips by Joseph Highmore 1748

The later story of Con Phillips descends into tragedy. After taking a third husband, the rich Irish surveyor, Hugh Montgomery, she followed him to Kingston, Jamaica where he became a plantation owner. After his death, Con inherited his entire estate, becoming a wealthy and respectable woman in her own right. She went on to have a further two husbands, the first a decent Scottish merchant Samuel Callendar who also died young and left her even more money.

She should have been set up for life, but scandal seems to have followed her wherever she went. By now in her fifties, Con married a scandalous young French man, Adhamar deLantagnac, who claimed to have grown up amongst Canadian indigenous tribes; his body was covered in tattoos. Delantagnac had already caused quite a stir in Kingston society and must have intrigued Mrs Callendar (as she was by then known). It was not to be a happy marriage. Delantagnac took control of her extensive finances and in a few short years frittered away her fortune until she was left with little money and her reputation in Kingston society in the dirt. Eventually Con threw him out but by then it was too late; her health was poor and debtors were on her trail. When she died shortly afterwards in January 1765, she was penniless. It was said that not a single mourner attended her funeral.