Vintage Red Rapparee dating

[davedyer]

During a recent visit to Cigar and Tabac in Overland Park, Ks. my very good pal Eli pleasantly surprised me with the purchase of a vintage tin of the great Rattray's Red Rapparee. A search of the internet hasn't provided information about when the tin labels changed from the old style to the new style. I'm trying to find that out in order to determine the approximate age of the tobacco. Any info or ideas?

 

[sablebrush52]

There are details that can help dated these, distributor label, printing on the pop top, where the tobacco was made, as in Germany or the UK. Put up some more images and someone may be able to help answer your question.

 

[davedyer]

There are details that can help dated these, distributor label, printing on the pop top, where the tobacco was made, as in Germany or the UK. Put up some more images and someone may be able to help answer your question.

thanks for the reply sablebrush 52. There is no more info anywhere else on the can except for a small number "1" by the pop top. The bottom has no markings.

 

[jpberg]

Neither is “old”. Maybe 15 years?

 

[kcghost]

Do you go into Cigar & Tabak often??

 

[sablebrush52]

thanks for the reply sablebrush 52. There is no more info anywhere else on the can except for a small number "1" by the pop top. The bottom has no markings.

For a period of time there were printed instructions on the pop top, 1980's - 90's IIRC. Sometimes a distributor, or importer stamp can indicate a time frame, as these contracts changed. I think @jguss has some knowledge about Rattray's label dating, so I'm pinging him just in case.

 

[jguss]

Much as I love McConnell-era Rattrays I've never bothered to revisit the work Loring did on dating the tins (see the Rattrays remarks near the end of his article Dating English Tinned Tobacco available on Pipedia here: DATING ENGLISH TINNED TOBACCO - Pipedia - https://pipedia.org/wiki/DATING_ENGLISH_TINNED_TOBACCO#:~:text=Generally%20Dating%20English%20Tins,tins%20can%20be%20comfortably%20dated.). Stripped of some nuance Loring believed that instructions printed on the top of a pop-top tin meant English production (generally McConnell and in some cases Rattray), lack of those instructions meant German production. I don't know for sure if that's true or not but it is consistent with all the tins I've seen and I tend to believe it.

As for other indicators I do know that the Red Rapparee changeover from 4oz to 100g tins happened sometime after 1995 and no later than 1998; in other words some 6 or 7 years after K&K took over production from McConnell. I also know that JB Russell took over distribution in the US from Hollco Rohr about the same time (I suspect at exactly the same time) production changed to Germany. So I believe that if the tin was imported by Hollco Rohr it's of English manufacture, if by JB Russell it's of German origin. In this context I should add I've seen an apparently identical tin to the one owned by the OP (blank top, identical label,contents measured in ounces) that had a JBR import sticker and was claimed to date from the 1990s. So in sum my best guess is that this tin was made by K&K sometime between 1990 and approximately 1996-97.