Old Humidors

[telescopes]

My oldest humidor, bought at a flea market at the rendezvous in Friendship, Indiana in mid 1980s is a Duraglas Amber Humidor made by Duraglas and marked as Dun Rite Wood.



It came with a five pipe wooden pipe stand and I've not lost it for nearly 40 years.

The best I can tell is that it was probably made in 1939.

Here is an article on dating Duraglas: Bottom of glass info (O-I) - https://www.bourbonex.com/forums/topic/266/bottom-of-glass-info-o-i



The bottom of the the jar shows the logo for Duraglas as well as date codes.

It appears the jar was made in the Brighton, NJ plant but the glass shows Brooklyn, NY at the bottom.

This humidor has served me will and although it does not have tight fitting lid - in fact the lid is a bit warped with age - I still use it from time to time.

I've since relied on Comoy of London humidors, but they are fragile - very fragile.

I am a sucker for vintage.

Do you have any older humidors in your collection?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Remember that a humidor should not be air tight. Does it have a little clip for putting a small bottle of PG under the lid?

 

[telescopes]

Remember that a humidor should not be air tight. Does it have a little clip for putting a small bottle of PG under the lid?

Yes, it does. I've used it before, but over time I needed to replace it. Typically, my efforts were just to add a few drops of water from time to time, and as long as I did that, it seemed to be functional enough. My concern is I get lazy and over time forget to do - ending up with some dry tobacco - which some don't mind.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Yeh, I think the way men used to use them is they'd buy a big can of Prince Albert or Half and Half, bring it home and dump into those jars. That way, they could look all classy smoking their OTC tobaccos. They weren't really meant to hold a tobacco for months and month. Maybe just a month's worth till they smoked it up. Just my guess.

 

[telescopes]

Back in the day when I bought pipe tobacco by the ounce, it worked just fine. I agree, they were never meant for long term storage. But for whatever reason, they bring me a bit of joy. The original Comoys of London humidor was purchased for me by my wife in either 1992 or 93. I finally broke a year ago. I was able to replace it with one that is an exact duplicate. Mostly, they are memories.

 

[telescopes]

I am curious how many other pipe smokers still use humidors. Most of my tobacco is kept in the original tin it came in, but every once in awhile I just have the urge to put it in a humidor. Most of mine allow me to scoop the tobacco into the bowl without spilling anything.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I have a few vintage tobacco jars and humidors I use for some pipe tobaccos. I mostly have open tins or jarred tobacco. For my cigars, I have more than a dozen humidors that are in use.

 

[didimauw]

I prefer to keep mine in glass. I have 4 I use regularly. I only grab from those jars. I have one older one like yours. I had another one but I threw it out cause the seal was bad. Now I prefer them to have a shot seal!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have three that came with pipe racks that I only use to keep pipecleaners in. And three raku ones I had a local ceramicist make for me, but I only keep wheat pennies and silver quarters in.

 

[lraisch]

I have five. One Comoy with a spider closure, a Savinelli ceramic, a square glass and a cast iron that I don't use much. My nicest is a heavy cut crystal with a silver lid featuring three crossed churchwardens for a handle.

 

[Buzz Saw]

My oldest humidor, bought at a flea market at the rendezvous in Friendship, Indiana in mid 1980s is a Duraglas Amber Humidor made by Duraglas and marked as Dun Rite Wood.




You ever make it back to southern Indiana? The shoot and flea market still goes on twice a year in Friendship, although the flea market isn't as good as it was 20 or 30 years ago, seems to be mostly imported junk and "yard sale items". I live about 30 minutes from Friendship. Actually my wife bought me my first pipe there in the early 1990's from a vendor who was set up there who had a tobacco shop in Aurora, man named Mac Nicely.

 

[telescopes]

That was a one time visit. I stayed a week and thoroughly enjoyed it. it was a great time.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Now that I have a few minutes to finish a pipe I started on Tuesday evening, I can share some pics to liven things up a little. Below are a few of my more interesting jars you might appreciate—a couple of leather-wrapped tobacco jars made by the French company, Longchamp (I collect their pipes, stands, jars) and a Bernhard Bloch tobacco jar depicting the UK cartoon character, Ally Sloper.

 

[Searock Fan]

I have one of these I bought new in 1966. Has 4 characters with "The best tobacco under the sun" in 4 languages.

 

[agnosticpipe]

I used to have a few, but now only have two. I have a Dun Rite like the OP has, and this wooden one from the UK. It reminds me of an old biscuit jar from the past, but I wouldn't hazard a guess as to its age. The lid seals fairly tightly from a leather band on the inside of the lid, and there's a humidifying disk on it too. I've never used it for tobacco though.

 

[telescopes]

These are three humidors that I use from time to time. The top one is my favorite, a Comoy's of London showing a train. I purchased this at a pipe shop that was near the train station in Durango, Colorado, back in 93. The other two humidors are ones I gathered much later when I decided I needed some more humidors. They too are Comoy's lot London humidors. One word of caution. These humidors are extremely fragile.

 

[kcghost]

I used to have one or two humidors and eventually phassed them out. I simply have no need for them. I only keep two or three tins opened at a time and when I'm done smoking everything in them, I open another three or four.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

This is one of my oldest, a copper and glass humidor from Colossus Pipe Factory (owned by the company KB&B, that morphed into Kaywoodie), 1920s or earlier (the Bernhard Bloch Ally Sloper is probably older by thirty years or so). This C.P.F. doesn’t hold moisture well, so I’ve converted it into a small display case for Colossus Pipe Factory related items. You can see the familiar red satin that I most often use as a pipe backdrop inside; that cloth was specifically bought to wrap around the foam inside this humidor—the excess ended being used for the pipe pics I post in WAYS.



This next one is a wooden Briggs tobacco humidor from the 1930s. It also doesn’t hold moisture very well. It bums me to not use it to hold tobacco, so I may end up using it to store Vincent Manil Semois, which is very dry to start—holding moisture won’t be an issue.



It has a humidification stone in the locking lid:



Here’s a common Decatur pipe stand with tobacco jar, the kind you see listed all the time on eBay. I imagine they were common from the ’50s–’70s.



Here’s a slightly upscale version of the same thing from Savinelli:



The fun thing about this is how the stands surround the jar:



This is my smallest Dunhill humidor (made by Elie Bleu of France for Dunhill). I use it for Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake; this tobacco is less likely to ghost the humidor than an aromatic.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I forgot to mention—the Dunhill/Elie Bleu is circa 1980s.

 

[Briar Lee]

I am curious how many other pipe smokers still use humidors. Most of my tobacco is kept in the original tin it came in, but every once in awhile I just have the urge to put it in a humidor. Most of mine allow me to scoop the tobacco into the bowl without spilling anything.

I have several in my office, with glass jars with a walnut lid and an Aztec humidifier stone in the bottom of the lid. I’ve not looked but odds are they are Dun Rite brand.



One I keep loaded with Smoker’s Pride Cherry.

Another one is full of C&D straight Virginia ribbon.

Then I have some swing wire lid glass jars my legal assistants gave me, all loaded with different blends of candy flavored aromatics.