John Sinclair Ltd. of Newcastle-on-Tyne (Antiquarian Nicotiana Brittanica Vol.18

[misterlowercase]

Welcome to another irregular edition of ANTIQUARIAN NICOTIANA BRITTANICA -

this post will look at Robert Sinclair Limited and it will mostly be a visual recording as hard info related to the company is very scarce.
John Sinclair was founded in 1856 in Bath Lane,

Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Carreras bought them out in 1929 and it became a subsidiary of that massive company, or more precisely:
In 1929 the two companies had undergone capital integration after Mr. John Alexander Sinclair (grandson of the founder) became a director of Carreras and a financial arrangement between the two companies came into being in 1930 through which they traded as associated companies before a complete merger in 1935.
Brother Robert's tobacco company was given an edition here:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/robert-sinclair-tobacco-co-ltd-of-newcastle-upon-tyne
Both companies were quite successful and prospered for most of the 20th century.
Any additional information would be most welcomed!
::

Now we're up to Highland Sliced, a baccy which remained in production (albeit in Denmark) up until last year, when it was sadly discontinued.
I sampled a couple of the small 25g pouches and found it quite lovely, but nothing earth shattering --- it was good stuff though!
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-match-made-in-heaven-highland-sliced
”The size of a Threepenny, the strength of a Handshake”

said the advert.

And now we're up to Barney's, a brand which was enormously successful.
The advertising was immense and cannot all be captured here, but here are a few selections nonetheless...
...the ads are interesting to see as they exude a certain adventurism of the far-flung olde Empire, and also note the EverFresh, an early "hockey puck" style round vacuum tin.

 

[deathmetal]

Dave Maxwell looked at the shining gadget before him with a swelling of pride. Building it had taken months, and he had checked and re-checked every calculation and configuration at least a dozen times. Now it was ready.
"She's a beaut, isn't she?" said his assistant Doug Rudolph, loading his trusty Northern Briars bent billiard. Where Dave was tall and thin with an austere, melancholic face, Doug towered over everyone in the room and was strapped in muscle, with a giant reddish-gold beard and bright green eyes. The large pipe peeked out from between his massive fingers as he stuffed it with thick shreds of Hal O' The Wynd.
Distracted, Dave rubbed a rag against the chrome surface to remove a spot of oil he thought he saw. "Let's hope this works," he said, beginning the initiation sequence.
"Where are we going?" asked Doug. "I mean, when." That was the only question, since Dave -- having cashed out his stock options and gone indie after a successful career as a magnetics engineer -- had created a veritable time machine.
"We're heading back in time to 1954, of course," said Dave. "I want to try some of that John Sinclair Golden Flake."
He didn't have to say anything else. Doug was already in position as navigator on one platform, and Dave assumed the other as the countdown begin and the room around them seemed to fade in concentric waves as the time tunnel was created.
"Hope there's some classic Royal Yacht too," said Doug.

 

[edgreen]

That Highland Sliced looks gorgeous. In what country is it required to have a "Smoking Kills" label? It caught me off guard.

As always, an amazing post. It takes a full bowl to digest it and linger over each item.

 

[simong]

Three cheers for mister lowercase, his posts never fail to take me back in time to another world, marvellous. I agree with you about highland sliced being a tad boring, I used to mix it with St. Bruno RR, transformed into a very tasty smoke. I have just the one pouch left now sadly.

 

[misterlowercase]

Thanks guys.
Loved the story DM!

Good stuff.
Ed,

the label is from the UK and things are going to get much worse.

Luckily we here in the US have been spared such disgrace because our govt. (so far) haven't taken the EU idiots seriously ---

Australia is ground zero in the "tobacco wars" and are fully implementing the WHO FCTC protocols,

but the UK is catching up...

On Wednesday 11 March 2015, MP’s in The House of Commons voted in favour of standardised packaging (367 for and 113 against). The measure was broadly supported by Labour and Liberal Democrats with opposition coming from Conservative representatives.The legislation, which was subsequently accepted into the House of Lords on Monday 16th March, ensures that tobacco packets will be of uniform size, shape and design featuring only brand name and graphic health warnings. The measures will come into effect on 20th May 2016 alongside the EU Tobacco Products Directive
http://tobaccotactics.org/index.php/Plain_Packaging_in_the_UK

See also:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30930376
The horrorshow graphic warnings are hideous.

:x
...back to the more palatable past,

we find ourselves at Davidoff of London circa 1996,

Punchbowle and Parson's Pleasure are still on the shelf:

The site with that pic has a pretty cool zoom feature,

it's hard to find these vintage shelf shots,

I love them so,

and although it ain't exactly very old,

it is quite interesting...

http://www.diomedia.com/stock-photo-tobacco-tins-on-sale-at-davidoff-of-london-a-specialist-tobacco-shop-compulsory-credit-uppaphotoshot-photo-uca-011472c-06-08051996-image17581677.html
::

 

[jpmcwjr]

What a treat, mlc! Thank you for all the great work you do. May I ask, how do you find such a trove of great images? Can some or most of it be Googled?

 

[deathmetal]

He's a wizard.

 

[bentbob]

Why aye bonny laad. Baccee from the land of Broon Ale.
Fantastic stuff. It is amazing how soon we forget what was once available. Highland Sliced used to be in virtually every newsagents, corner shop, tobacconist etc. Haven't smoked it in years and had completely forgotten about it. Orlik make it now I believe. I'm going to have to get some!

 

[misterlowercase]

May I ask, how do you find such a trove of great images? Can some or most of it be Googled?

Yep, the google will find most all of it, only patience is required, but due to the ephemeral nature of the worldwideweb, much of it disappears and requires one to download the images to an archive and the archive will slowly grow over time. Some of the more esoteric stuff is found via advanced searches looking in a specific region or language --- I get incredibly excited when I find stuff that I've long been searching for and suddenly find a treasure trove, it's a great feeling and I get a thrill out of seeing this old stuff.

He's a wizard.

I'm really more like a grumpy old librarian digging thru the antiquated dewey decimal system of doom --

determined to undust all the archaic ephemera that I can find...

Baccee from the land of Broon Ale.

No doubt, I love the Broon Ale!

Newcastle is a regular, but lately ever since my local got Cigar City beer I've been drinking tons of their Mauduro which seems tailor-made for matching with baccy --- I first tasted it in Florida and for a long time their distro was crap, but now finally it's readily available where I live,

it is truly a divine nectar!

Highland Sliced used to be in virtually every newsagents, corner shop, tobacconist etc. Haven't smoked it in years and had completely forgotten about it. Orlik make it now I believe. I'm going to have to get some!

yep, Orlik AKA Scandinavian Tobacco Group,

who sadly decided last year to discontinue production:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/john-sinclair-highland-slices-ceases-production

...but you could probably find some on a shelf somewhere over there I'd reckon,

buy all you can find because it's the end of the bloodline!

::

 

[fearsclave]

misterlowercase, is there a thread or post with a complete set of links to all your antiquarian posts? I haven't been able to find them all using the search function here...

 

[woodsroad]

Troy needs his own blog, a place to collect all of these fantastic posts.

 

[deathmetal]

Maybe tag them all with "history":
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/tags/history
Or even "antiquarian."
Other users can add tags as well I believe.

 

[misterlowercase]

misterlowercase, is there a thread or post with a complete set of links to all your antiquarian posts? I haven't been able to find them all using the search function here...

Here's a partial list, most all of the ANB series is there, I only started naming it that since #13...

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/a-selection-of-diverse-adverts-from-mlcs-old-british-magazine-collection#post-897710

Troy needs his own blog, a place to collect all of these fantastic posts.

I've been thinking the same thing Dan,

sometime this year hopefully I'll get my shit together and make it happen, most likely a freebie google blogger platform, with a working title of JOLLY SMOGGER'S REEK LORE...

Maybe tag them all with "history":
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/tags/history
Or even "antiquarian."
Other users can add tags as well I believe.

My best luck when searching the forums is doing the google thing,

i.e.:

salmon gluckstein site:pipesmagazine.com/forums
...only drawback is having a specific thing in mind.
The number of posts on these forums is truly staggering, and a very large chunk of them contain incredibly useful information --- these forums are one of the richest pipe/baccy resources currently online methinks, and there are so many members who contribute to the mix, thanks everyone for making this place something special, I really enjoy my time spent here, and I've learned a helluva lot from reading/interacting with everyone here!

::

 

[fearsclave]

Wonderful, thanks! This is going to keep me occupied for a while .

 

[skraps]

I've been thinking the same thing Dan,

sometime this year hopefully I'll get my shit together and make it happen,

Check out Wordpress, Troy. Still free if I recall, unless of course you want to have a custom domain, etc. But, I find the platform the most user friendly out there, and it's pretty powerful to be honest.