Cardboard, Tins and Sherlock Holmes

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sumatra

Lurker
Oct 11, 2017
4
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Hello! I am currently doing some research concerning early tobacco containers and could use some help.
In the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, the title object is described like so.
"At two o'clock yesterday afternoon a small packet, wrapped in brown paper, was handed in by the postman. A cardboard box was inside, which was filled with coarse salt."
"The box is a half-pound box of honeydew tobacco and does not help us in any way."
"Lestrade went in and brought out a yellow cardboard box, with a piece of brown paper and some string."
"The box is a yellow, half-pound honeydew box, with nothing distinctive save two thumb marks at the left bottom corner."
Most depictions of this box are big ol' brown boxes, like most people would think of when imagining a cardboard box. I decided to see if I could find examples of a box like that described. Small, half-pound, yellow, cardboard, honeydew tobacco box with corners. I suspect that they are referring to a box that held loose tobacco, and not cigarettes or cigars. Also, while a date isn't given in the story, estimated dates range from 1882 to 1888.
I've found a few yellow honeydew tobacco brands that I think are from around that era, most prominently W.D. & H.O. Wills' Gold Flake Honey Dew. However, I still have some questions. I've done a fair amount of digging already, but would appreciate some help, even if it's in recommendations for further sources.
There seem to be very few cardboard tobacco boxes around today, period. At first I assumed that this was due to their flimsiness, in comparison to tins (and I still believe that's a factor). But everything I've read seems to suggest that tins were already the predominant container at that time, which makes me question just how widespread cardboard tobacco boxes were by then. I did see an article written in 1895 that may have cleared it up. It stated that since postage had to be affixed to any containers being shipped, tobacco companies were using cardboard boxes to enclose tins in order to keep the tins pristine. So, at what time did tins replace cardboard, if cardboard was even in the picture at all? And if cardboard was still being used in the 1880s, for what purposes?
Also, I'm having trouble nailing down dates. I bought a box for Compass Brand Golden Flaked Honey Dew, manufactured by Stephen Mitchell and son, that almost fits the description (it's a quarter-pound, so the size is off). Some of their boxes state that they won a prize at the 1889 Paris exhibition, but I can't determine if that relates to their Honey Dew brand specifically, or if the tobacco was around before that date. If there were any way I could get my hands on some advertisements from the 1880s to see what brands of honey dew tobacco were available, be it Mitchell, Wills or otherwise, that would be great. Or is there a better way of narrowing it down?
Thank you in advance for any help that you can provide!

 

madox07

Lifer
Dec 12, 2016
1,823
1,689
If it helps, "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" was published for the first time in 1893, in the Strand Magazine. I know this because I have an extensive collection of books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and one of them sorts the short stories by publishing year.

 

conlejm

Lifer
Mar 22, 2014
1,433
8
The strangest thing. I just read this story for the first time yesterday evening, at about the same time you were posting this message. I'm working my way through the collected Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

sumatra

Lurker
Oct 11, 2017
4
0
Thanks for the info, madox07! I was trying to narrow the date down to the time the story would likely take place, not when it was published, but it's entirely possible that the box is an anachronism. I'll look into that.
Hope you're enjoying the stories, conlejm!

 

brightleaf

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2017
555
4
In looking through the 1889 Tobacco: an Illustrated Weekly it seems that tobaccos were packaged in many different containers. The same company would offer different blends in different packages, color often being the indicator of the blend. It could be a cloth bag, a glass jar, tin foil, tin box, wooden box, paper box, paper bag, folded paper or a cardboard box. I think the Honeydew would have been a loose bulk tobacco in a shag cut. At half a pound I doubt it was filled with smaller containers. Under the Allen & Ginter listing you can see the cigarette tobacco is still sold in cardboard boxes.

tobacco-packaging-1.jpg


tobacco-packaging-2.jpg

Here are a couple snapshots from the book The Soverane Herbe A History of Tobacco by W.A. Penn 1901

the-soverane-herb-2.jpg


the-soverane-herb-1.jpg


 

sumatra

Lurker
Oct 11, 2017
4
0
Wow, brightleaf! Thank you so much. You went above and beyond. I was having the hardest time finding anything pre-1890.

 

nevadablue

Lifer
Jun 5, 2017
1,192
4
Yes, thanks brightleaf. I found the second book in PDF format here...
https://ia600208.us.archive.org/0/items/cu31924001715998/cu31924001715998.pdf

 

brightleaf

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2017
555
4
No problem Sumatra.
Thanks for finding a link to share with everyone Nevadablue. W.A. Penn writes well and has a humorous style. While the author obviously favored pipes, I thought I'd share this short passage with you.
From pages 247-248...Bismark was a man of tobacco as well as of blood and iron. The best smoke he ever had in his life, he declared, was a cigar which he did not smoke. At Koniggratz he had only one cigar left, and this he carefully guarded during the battle, anticipating the hour of victory when he could smoke it. Riding over the field after the fight, he came across a poor Dragoon lying helpless with crushed legs, and praying for something to refresh him. Bismark had nothing in his pockets except gold and his cherished cigar; the former was useless to the wounded man—but his cigar? He lit it, and placed it between the soldier's teeth. “You should have seen the poor fellow's grateful smile. I never enjoyed a cigar so much as that one which I did not smoke.” Of all the touches of nature which make the whole world kin, tobacco is the most potent...

 

brightleaf

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2017
555
4
Not sure if you're still following this thread Sumatra but I was browsing through the old Cope's books today and happened upon a Honeydew Tobacco Ad. I looked for Golden Cloud brand as well after seeing this Ad from The Smoker's Textbook 1889

honeydew-1889-the-smokers-textbook.jpg


And this one from Selections From James Thompson's Contributions To Cope's Tobacco Plant 1889

selections-from-james-thompsons-contributions-to-copes-tobacco-plant-1889.jpg


I saw this in The Smokers Garland 1890 confirming that it is describing a cigarette tobacco.

the-smokers-garland-1890.jpg


I then looked in an earlier edition of Cope's Tobacco Plant September 1879 and saw the packaging description for Golden Cloud listed.

copes-tobacco-plant-september-1879.jpg


So the cardboard box may have contained smaller portioned packaging after all.

 

sumatra

Lurker
Oct 11, 2017
4
0
Yep, I'm still around. Thanks again, brightleaf.
My interest in this topic centres around two different viewpoints, one real world and one fictional. One, why did Doyle specify a cardboard tobacco box in his story? And two, what does the choice of a cardboard tobacco box tell us about the character who chose it in the story itself? And for both viewpoints, what specific box matches the description?
The truth is, we'll never know for sure, but the information provided in this thread has been terrific in giving me options for speculation.

 

brightleaf

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2017
555
4
I think he specified a cardboard honeydew tobacco box to distinguish the personality as that of a cigarette smoker. The criminal is depicted as tying good knots with a tarred string (sailor), misspelling Corydon (uneducated), and the cigarette tobacco (impulsive and nervous). Quite different characteristics from himself, a pipe tobacco smoker.
As to the exact brand of honeydew, I don't know.

 
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