I must admit, I had never heard of “Sweet Scotch Snuff” until today.

But a quick search of Wikipedia tells me that “Snuff is ground or pulverized tobacco, which is generally inhaled or “snuffed” through the nose.”  That much of course I knew.

What I did not know was that snuff basically comes in two versions… the (primarily) European version, which is dry  and usually scented or flavored and is intended to be sniffed through the nose.   And then there is moist snuff – often called American Snuff  – which tends to be applied to the gums, rather than sniffed. It’s sometimes called dipping tobacco, and like the European versions, comes in many varieties and flavours.  There is yet another type of snuff, unique to India, called “creamy snuff” which is more of a paste sold in toothpaste tubes… and marketed mainly to women.

I became aware of “Sweet Scotch Snuff” when I saw this small piece of vintage ephemera on a blog which is interestingly titled “Paper Dolls for Boys“.  Despite its title, the blog does occasionally display a number of interesting pieces of ephemera.  They are generally part of a weekly category called “vintage photo friday”.

In reading the small ticket, which offered a “lady’s fine linen handkerchief” which normally sells “for 25 cents”, I began to look into just what is “Blue Ribbon Sweet Scotch Snuff” but did not find a whole lot. It’s interesting that back then, and I can’t seem to find a date for the Handkerchief Ticket, a man (presumably) was offered a fine linen hankie for his lady, as part of a “reward” (?) for buying four tins of snuff.

I did find the tin on the right, a different brand, offered on Etsy.  The description reads:

From what I can tell this has never been opened. It is Helme quality snuff. The paper label is in very good condition, a couple of very small spots. My pictures show the front and back of the label.

This tin is approx. 2 1/4 inches tall and 1 3/4 across.

It’s listed at a mere $8.00 which somewhat surprised me.

I am assuming that there is a group of “snuff tin” collectors out there.. there seem to be collectors of almost everything these days.  I am wondering if there is also a group who collects ephemera related to snuff?

How about YOU?  Do you collect either snuff ephemera, tins of snuff – or anything that might fit into both the  general category of “snuff” and “ephemera”?  I’d like to hear from you.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom

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Technorati tags: Bonanzle, Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Snuff, Tobacco, Blue Ribbon Snuff

In my most recent blog article I mentioned that I had done some traveling of late and wrote of the Bata Museum in Toronto.  What I failed to mention is that our travels also took us briefly home to New York City – but that was an Ephemera-free visit.

Today I ran across references to the New York City Public Library’s (NYPL) Digital Collection of tobacco cards, which now numbers more than 125,000 individual items, including more than 3000 complete sets.

I’m not a collector of such items but know that many of my Ephemera collector friends are.. and that there are several such collectors who belong to the new “Ephemera Network”.

If you have not as yet run across the NYPL collection I highly recommend it to you.  The collection was made possible thanks to an endowment by a Mr. George Arents who was an heir to the American Tobacco Company.  Mr. Arents (whose biography is a bit confusing because both he and his son dropped the Jr. and III after their names when the elder died, and them moved themselves up to Sr. and Jr.) was an avid collector of Tobacciana, which encompases all tobacco related items, not just tobacco cards.

If you have any interest in tobacco, or cigarette cards or related items, I highly recommend a visit to the NYPL Digital Collection… and from there to two blog articles on both Mr. Arents and the overall topic of Tobacciana.  From those blogs you can reach out even further to what may well be a never ending set of links to related topics.

According to the NYPL link, “most cigarette cards were produced by conventional offset or other economical commercial printing processes, but a few series were issued as original gelatin silver photographs or printed on silk or linen fabric; others were created as puzzles or paper toy cut-outs.”

The appeal of contemporary cigarette cards fell by the 1950s, ceasing their production and distribution… and from there began yet another Ephemera collectible… “Cigarette Cards”

Enjoy!

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the encore it deserves.

Tom
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Technorati tags: eBay, Encore Ephemera, Cigarette Cards, George Arents, New York Public Library, Tobacciana, Ephemera, The Ephemera Network, Delcampe Auctions