Finally: A Wally Frank Yule Blend Humo-Crock!

[huntertrw]

Since I first read about it years ago, I have wanted a Wally Frank Humo-Crock. This was the ceramic container in which their Yule Blend pipe-tobacco (produced from 1933 to 1960) came packed.

In his book "The Christmas Pipe - A Collector's Celebration of Pipe Smoking at Yuletide" author Richard Carleton Hacker wrote,"The Wally Frank Yule Blend came in a specially produced 3 oz. airtight "Humo-Crock" and was only available during the Christmas season of each year. The tobacco itself was a heavy aromatic 'likened to the flavor of a Plum Pudding," according to one 1938 ad. The blend consisted of flue-cured Virginia, Carolina Cavendish, Macedonian Kavalla and 'British Shropshire Twist.' Each May this mixture is packed into thousands of individual Humo-Crocks, where it is aged for 8 months. The round ceramic sealed containers were then brought out and put on the market at Christmastime. To quote from a pre-war Wally Frank ad, '...Since our supply is limited, we have decided to put the blend out once a year at holiday time so a man can get the most enjoyment from it. We feel that if a pipe smoker will sit back after the plum pudding of his Christmas dinner and fill his pipe with this delicious blend, he will feel a full measure of contentment and enjoyment...'"

Gosh, who wouldn't want a pipe-tobacco like that? Since I can't have the tobacco, I can at least have the Humo-Crock it came in, and it's a handsome thing:







Now, if I can just find my own personal Yule Blend to put in it...

 

[Briarcutter]

Since I first read about it years ago, I have wanted a Wally Frank Humo-Crock. This was the ceramic container in which their Yule Blend pipe-tobacco (produced from 1933 to 1960) came packed.

In his book "The Christmas Pipe - A Collector's Celebration of Pipe Smoking at Yuletide" author Richard Carleton Hacker wrote,"The Wally Frank Yule Blend came in a specially produced 3 oz. airtight "Humo-Crock" and was only available during the Christmas season of each year. The tobacco itself was a heavy aromatic

I edited my original link. I read your post too quickly and your photo was not up. Looks like you got one,congratulations!!

 

[renfield]

That is a thing of beauty. Congrats on a successful hunt.

 

[VDL_Piper]

Great insight and I love the crock which is a great old world name for an earthen vessel

 

[Boko_Fittleworth]

@huntertrw.
Great looking piece! How did you find it? Ebay?

 

[PapaCoolDown]

Congrats on your find. It looks magnificent.

 

[Auxsender]

Very very cool.
I want one too!

 

[greeneyes]

In the 70s or 80s I think I used to eat a type of cheddar spread that came in crocks like this, some with swivel top lids. Should be fairly easy to find in thrift shops and antique markets for anyone wanting to keep tobacco.

 

[sablebrush52]

Very very cool earthenware crock. I like that it looks handmade rather than molded.

 

[huntertrw]

I found this one on eBay. There are others (my guess is that the style changed periodically) but this is the particular one that I favored and I feel lucky to have found it.

Now I need recommendations on the Christmas tobacco to put in it. I'm thinking about The Country Squire Tobacconist's Figgy Pudding mixture, as it sounds similar to Frank's Yule Blend. What say you?

 

[huntertrw]

Well, Figgy Pudding is off the list, at least for now; TCST's Website shows it is sold out .

 

[wyfbane]

Congratulations on that crock. It is particularly rewarding to hunt an item like that and finally score.

If you have any cellared, Christmas Cheer would be my recommendation for a tobacco.

 

[huntertrw]

If you have any cellared, Christmas Cheer would be my recommendation for a tobacco.

Thank-you for the suggestion. Actually, I do have some Christmas Cheer - 2011 cellared, but somehow I cannot get the plum- / fig-pudding-tobacco thought out of my noodle: