Ye Olde Tobacconist Shoppe, The Way Things Once Were (image heavy)

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ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,410
11,302
Maryland
postimg.cc
If we put our collective heads together, do you think we could come up with a time machine? It is a bit melancholy that world is lost to us. How would you like to stroll into a shop advertising "A Thousand Pipes"?

 

andystewart

Lifer
Jan 21, 2014
3,973
3
Well done Troy - you've excelled yourself yet again!
To put all of this into context and to my eternal shame, contrast the pictures above to modern, nanny-state Britain, where from 6 April 2015 it will be illegal for any of the remaining businesses selling tobacco products to display tobacco products to the public. These laws were implemented in large stores (supermarkets &c.) in April 2015 - now it's the turn of the little guy.
http://www.smokefreeaction.org.uk/point-of-sale-display.html
Andy

 

settersbrace

Lifer
Mar 20, 2014
1,565
5
Looking at photos like these always leave me with mixed emotions but like a good car crash, I look on. Had there been any way for those folks of generations past to have forseen what eventualities were immenent for tobacco sales, they would have been the ones heart sick for us. Some of us are still fortunate enough to have a full service tobacconist shop to visit or work in and I for one hope they continue to survive and prosper.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
Sadly, it is indeed a very lost world.
...and the display ban is is a farce generated by the damn'd powerful FCTC, and many kneel before them, such strict laws and high taxation only strengthen the black market and help fund the criminal element as well as terrorist organizations.
The aughts last go round in the 20thC was also heavily impacted by the temperance movement and the enactment of prohibition had lousy results...
...all the recent news buzz here about FDA + cigars + hooka is troubling, feels like an impending hammer is about to come down.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
To deepest hell with the display ban!
I'm gonna inject some color here, so we can get a sense of just how jawdroppingly beautiful these well-dressed windows would have been in eye-popping vibrancy enough to stop you in your tracks and gaze lovingly...
...so here's abuncha the advertising material that was displayed in the windows and inside the shops.
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andystewart

Lifer
Jan 21, 2014
3,973
3
Thanks Troy! Really interesting pictures that are a piece of history. Fascinating to see the guys shaving plug like he's slicing an apple!
Andy

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
:D

No doubt.
I've got a few different knives I use,

but I smoke so many plugs that I finally broke down and gotta proper cutter,

they can be found on the cheap, mine is a Yankee Slicer like this one:

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cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
Troy, I just did a search on some old photos of Peretti's( Boston) and Leavitt and Peirce ( Cambridge) and there were quite a few. I grew up in Boston and used to go to those places with my dad in the 60's. Thanks for all the pics you posted, if you feel like posting more check out a search on them.
It is a shame most of these places no longer exist but at least Peretti and LP are still there. If anyone is ever in Boston, definitely make a trip to both.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
Another nice old Stephen Mitchell baccy cabinet popped up for sale recently...
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A few more from the famous Haymarket address of Fribourg & Treyer...
A good quick read about F&T here:

The Old Snuff House of Fribourg & Treyer at the Sign of the Rasp & Crown

https://archive.org/details/oldsnuffhouseoff00evaniala
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...and F&T's Oxford location,

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A slim few more oldtimey British shoppes...
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oldreddog

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2014
923
6
Brilliant stuff yet again Mr LC.
I pass by the building that Purcell Ltd. was in fairly often. There is a short history of the building here, http://comeheretome.com/2012/06/16/stonework-of-lafayette-building/ , and a nice photo of the relief carving of the Purcell sign.

 

crusher47

Starting to Get Obsessed
Sep 29, 2014
230
0
Awesome pics!! If I ever build my "smoke room", I'd love to make some 8x10 photos of these old shops and hang them on the walls.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
:idea:
Thanks for highlighting the figure Al,

it is indeed wonderful!
The typical advertising figure for an olde tobacconist in England was a snufftaking Scottish Highland soldier of the British Army.
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Although the "Red Indian" was most popular over here, the Highlander was used in the USA too...
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There was at one time a broad varied range of iconic figures in front of the tobacconist shop, but ultimately the "cigar store Indian" won out as the universal symbol.
These artifacts are now highly valued and command great sums of money, in most cases they're considered to be Folk Art.
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...like the baseball player that brought $15,000 back in 2001,

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/circa_1880_cigar_store_wooden_baseball_figure___-lot17290.aspx
...or this Demuth Punch figure that sold for $207,000 !!! in 2008,

http://news-antique.com/?id=784319
A good essay on the subject here,

The Image Business: Shop and Cigar Store Figures in America

by Ralph Sessions

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa544.htm
A great website here,

http://www.cigarstoreindians.com/

&

http://www.cigarstorefigure.com/
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K

klause

Guest
Wow! Blast from the past!! I bought my first pipe in that Tobacconist in Coventry Garden - a clay George V figural (still smoke one) - I was 14 years old. I was mesmerised by the stunning meerschaums lining the wall behind the counter.
Returned a few years ago, while on a visit to London. Sadly, it had fewer meers, and fewer tobaccos. Still picked up a VERY nice house blend. Smoked the whole lit in 2 days wandering round London, in a nice old Karl Erik freehand.
To bring it up to date, I was visiting Belfast a few weeks ago and picked up some nice old estates at a market, for £2 a piece. One of these was a pipe produced for, and sold by, said Pipe Shoppe :)
Even with reduced inventory, that shop is an oasis in a world of bland, and has the power to transform me back into a spotty, snotty, schoolboy.
Cheers, Troy.

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
Cheers Jason,

what a great story there! I love that cobblestone sidewalk and the shop itself looks like a timewarp.
Even with reduced inventory, that shop is an oasis in a world of bland, and has the power to transform me back into a spotty, snotty, schoolboy.

:lol:

I hearya!

I'd get wobbly knees and start hopelessly drooling LOL
That's cool you got your first pipe when you were 14,

wish I had that much sense when I was a yungin!

:puffy:

 
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