@Torquil, I’ve verified that the upper right one is the only one that includes this “Versatility of Rum” essay in that form. Single-page, shortened “Versatility of Rum” blurbs appear in the upper right and lower left specimens, but those don’t mention Repeal. Also, in that upper right one, they aren’t yet referring to their 151 as “Purple Label”.
I totally buy your working hypothesis.
Moreover, the RonRico material from the 1940 How & When is all present in that upper right specimen, and the same cannot be said for any other RonRico material we have. Moreover, this RonRico booklet even has a “Tropical Specialties” section at the back (similar to How & When)! So, I’m gonna call the upper right booklet as being from 1940, too, and I’m going to call it as the source of the recipes in Marco’s How & When.
In 1941, RonRico published a dated pamphlet called The Rum Connoisseur; this has fewer drinks, but adds the Hot Zombie, Mary Pickford, RonRico Flip and a few odds and ends, all of which appear in the upper left booklet, so I’m going to call the upper left booklet as 1941 or 1942—roughly contemporaneous with that first edition Connoisseur pamphlet.
Furthermore, a second, dated edition of The Rum Connoisseur appears in 1946. In it, RonRico has begun specially pushing a drink called Coconga featuring their Coconga Coconut Mix; that drink also appears in a slightly different form in the upper left (1941/1942) booklet as the RonRico Coconga. The updated Coconga appears in all the remaining RonRico materials we have, making 1946 probably the latest that the upper left specimen could come from.
In terms of dated materials, that leaves two items: the 1953 Make ’em with RonRico pamphlet, which is a lot like a stripped down The Rum Connoisseur pamphlet, and the 1954 booklet in the lower left. Unsurprisingly, these two are closely related in content.
That just leaves the lower right specimen, which is the odd man out. It feels like the newest, it has slightly more recipes than the 1954, but it has a rather odd mix of recipes spanning all the RonRico materials we have. It is not a member of any clear progression. It might precede 1953, or post-date 1954. I’m not sure we really care that much, since it contains little or nothing new.
Woohoo!