Mike McNiel Asks; “Where’s Fred Goldring!?!?!”
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Kevin Godbee - Jul 13, 2012
- 0 min read
Kevin Godbee
Mike McNiel of McClelland Tobacco Co. shared some intriguing vintage tobacco tins with me during the Kansas City Pipe Show. There were five tins, four from Dunhill, plus The Savory Blend from H.L. Savory & Co. Ltd., London. The four Dunhill tobaccos were; Standard Mixture, Three Year Matured, Aperitif, and Durbar.
According to Mike, Fred Hanna said that these tins, rather than being collectibles, should be in a museum. Their years of origin range from 1944 – 1955, and they came from retail tobacconist Iwan Ries & Co. in Chicago. They have never been opened, and the lids are bulging from the top due to the gas created by the fermentation that has happened over the years.
Mike received the tobaccos from a collector a couple of years ago. The tins have been kept cellared, cool and hidden from light, the entire time Mike has been in possession of them. The title of this post was suggest by Mike, and PipesMagazine.com was happy to oblige. Some people will get it, and some won’t, but we do like to have fun around here.
Here are some photos of the tins. (Click for larger images.)
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Written by Kevin Godbee
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I remember the first time I heard someone else say it. “How many pipes do I need? Just one more.” It’s glib, sure, a bit of a joke, but it also rings a bell of truth, at least to me. I certainly have “enough” pipes, but pipes are seductive little things. Just when we think we’re all set, we have enough, another will come along that tempts us beyond any sense of reason. I suppose it’s the same way with any sort of collecting. There’s always another white whale we’re in pursuit of. When we finally track that one down, though, another will almost inevitably breach the surface, taking its place as the new object of our desire, enticing us to change course and set sail once again. But, there’s a potential problem with having a lot of pipes. Maybe. The more pipes we may have, the harder it can be to keep them in rotation. It makes sense. We tend to gravitate towards our current faves, the ones that most appeal to us for whatever reason, and sometimes, maybe they stay in rotation longer than they really should. The side-effect of this, of course, is that another favored pipe might end up too-long forgotten. That’s exactly what happened recently. Exhibit A: The Castello pictured is one that has been long overlooked. It’s a Trademark shape #55. It’s a really nice example of the shape. The red pearlized stem is beautifully done. The wood isn’t really anything special to look at, but it’s evenly covered, without any bald spots. When I look at it, I wonder why it wasn’t done in the more typical dark ruby-red finish that adorns most Trademarks. I’ve seen a great deal of variation amongst the grade over the years, including one really nice bent-bulldog that left the factory with a brown sandblasted finish. (For those who don’t know, Trademark has long been the lowest Castello smooth grade, usually finished in a dark red.) Was this a stamping/grading error, or is there just more leeway in the grade than we’ve come to expect? I might never know. This example is from the early 1970s, maybe even the late 1960s, identified by the upper case Ks in the grade designation. (On Sea Rock and Old Antiquari pipes, the Ks reflect the size, while with the smooth finishes, Trademark, Castello and Collection, the Ks represent the relative grade.) It has been living in a different rack than the one housing the majority of my #55s. I don’t recall why I put it there, but as many of us can relate to, rack space is often at a premium. I stumbled upon it while looking for something completely different. “Oh, you? Why are you there? I remember you smoke pretty well.” Yeah, I sometimes talk to my pipes – one of many quirks, I suppose. I won’t begin to worry until they start talking back. I grabbed it from the rack, dusted it off, and decided to give it a fill with a bowl of a slightly aged VA/perique blend, Telegraph Hill, from 2018. What a delightful smoke! At five years, the tobacco is expressing a lot of the complexities of aged Virginias and the perique adds a delightful fruitiness. When young, the composition is a bit brighter, maybe a little spicier, but time has polished any edges, and amplified the sweeter notes. Like the pipe, I’d forgotten about this blend for quite a while, but one evening in March, after chatting with my good friend Nate, who is quite a fan of it, I decided it might be time to revisit it. I got a couple of fresh ones, and excavated a couple older tins from the library. I normally reach for Fillmore when I want a VA/perique thing because of its boldness and depth, but in revisiting this one, I’m finding something soothing and comfortable about it that I’ve really been enjoying, both young and aged. Sticking with the theme of the forgotten, and as a perhaps interesting tidbit to the photographically inclined, I shot the pictures for this month’s column with my old Nikkor-O 35mm/2.0 mounted on my trusty Nikon Df. The last time I used this lens, it was adapted to one of my Fujifilm bodies, and I didn’t care much for the results, so I put it away and pretty much forgot about it. But, I’ve recently been exploring some of my old kit, deciding what to keep, what to pass along, and this one once again came to my attention, kind of like that old Castello. On the Df, there’s something about its vintage rendering that I find truly appealing. Another forgotten treasure, and just like with that old pipe, it seems that, at least today, everything old is new again. If your collection is on the large side, are there pipes or tobaccos that you’ve all but forgotten, only to come back to them one day to find yourself wondering why? Maybe it’s just another fun dimension to this endlessly fascinating journey.
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Awesome. The temptation to pop one of these babies open must be unimaginable.
Talk about tobacco heaven!!
WW 2 era tins are really intriguing. Considering the lack of consumer goods and rationing. As a student of history, especially WW 2, I would love to know the history on those particular tins.
They definitely belong in a museum, perhaps the Imperial War museum in England, or the Smithsonian in the U.S.
Sorry, but I would smoke at least one of them with no guilt.
SOMEBODY ASS BETTER SEND ME SOME
PIPE TOBACCO
Absolutely fascinating ! I have often dreamed of coming across a hidden stash of some of the “oldies” , of my early days. Even some of the more popular drug store blends like Revelation, or a pouch of Ivanhoe – a favorite of my grandfather’s. Perhaps the tobacco gods will smile on me one day and my dream will come true.
Smoke ’em! Smoke ’em all! The purpose of tobacco is to be smoked. Save the tin if you wish, but put the tobacco in your favorite old pipe and enjoy…