Male staff food handling and preparation coat (white)

Men's long sleeved, double breasted, button fastening coat with two rows of six large black plastic buttons. The coat is loose fitting and drops to below the waist. It has a "mandarin" collar and the sleeves are open. There are care instruction labels on the inside of the coat. At the back of the collar, written in black ink, is the name "Harris"'. Coats of this type were worn by J. Sainsbury staff for food handling and preparation work in the 1930s. Trainees' coats like this had black buttons but more senior staff were given red buttons.