What Sort of Blends Did the Typicall British Gentleman Smoke?

[Gecko]

I'm under the impression that the plentiful, varied and clearly defined tobacco blends we have available today are a modern phenomena. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

I recently read a book about Kim Philby, the famous British traitor. After his defection he had Soviet spies buy two pipes in London that were smuggled to Philby in Moscow in a diplomatic pouch. Philby was a life long pipe smoker from the upper echelons of British society. He often used his pipe to appear more relaxed when he was in tense situations.

Reading about Philbys smoking made me wonder what sort of blends were available to and popular with the high society types in the first half of the 20th century.

 

[bluegrassbrian]

I’m no expert but I tend to get the impression that there were indeed fewer available tinned and prepackaged blends.
Tobacconists were a lot more common, as were actual house blended varieties. Certainly there was no shortage of quality leaf. All the usual suspects were used... various Virginia’s, orientals including latakia, perique, Burleys, and everything in between.

Dunhill would make custom blends for people who could then reorder them using an assigned blend number.

 

[judcole]

Many of the old school English, Scottish, and Irish tobacconists have been around a long time; some of their offerings date way back. It's well known, for example, that Professor Tolkien smoked Capstan, and that his fellow Inkling, C. S. Lewis, smoked Three Nuns.

 

[mikethompson]

What Sort of Blends Did the Typical British Gentleman Smoke?

why not ask Jay (@mawnansmiff) yourself?

 

[condorlover1]

Some people had their own blends made up by their local tobacconist mixed from huge ceramic jars otherwise they purchased tinned tobacco. Names that come to mind are Condor, Three Nuns, Gold Block, St Bruno, Mellow Virginia, multiple blends from Players tobacco's, Sun Ripe Pipe Tobacco (1920s blend) Balkan Sobranie, Bondman (Red Tin) Capstan (Brown & Blue). The list is pretty endless although S&G plugs and twist would probably not have featured in Kim Philby rotation. As an after thought Philby wasn't a gentlemen, he was a degenerate dreamer who deserved hanging for treason.

 

[Gecko]

Thank you all for great information!
I now have a more complete and less eronious picture.

@condor: I completely agree, I used gentleman as a person of noble birth belonging to high society, Oxbridge educated etc... Plenty of asses among the gentlemen and Philby was a utter dispicable rat.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

There are so many blends that have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history.
I had a quick browse of old tins on ebay and just some of the names were:

Players Whiskey Flake
Loewe 58 Smoking Mixture
Mullins & Westley Ltd Crusting Cake (love the sound of that one)
WILL'S Legation
OGDEN'S Tom Long
The “Kings Head”
Tam O'shanter

BTW I agree with what condorlover said about Philby. Wouldn't surprise me if the treacherous bastard smoked Clan ?.

 

[mso489]

Maybe our members in UK have some historical memory on this. I would guess that British pipe smokers tend toward Virginia based blends, with Oriental and Latakia condiments, based on trade patterns and the tradition of English blends. I think of them less as burley smokers, but I'd be interested to hear from the pipe smokers who live there.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Interesting question, and I look forward to Jay's input. But I bet he didn't smoke that much in the first half of the 20th C.!

Raises question for me: When was Perique first introduced to the UK market?

 

[jpberg]

Interesting question, and I look forward to Jay's input. But I bet he didn't smoke that much in the first half of the 20th C.!

Raises question for me: When was Perique first introduced to the UK market?

There are perique blends in the 1895 Harrods catalog, so at least that far back.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

There are perique blends in the 1895 Harrods catalog, so at least that far back.

Don't suppose you've got a link to that Harrods catalogue jpberg? Harrods has always been seen as the finest shop in England and I bet that catalogue would be interesting to read.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Good info, JP; thanks. Yeah, the Harrods catalog for then would be interesting!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Well, here it is. Took a bit to get to pipe tobacco, but here's the first page, following about a 100 cigar and cigaret listing.

LINK to Pipe Tobacco- Harrods' 1895 catalog

The whole darn catalog is interesting!

 

[jpberg]

It’s actually a book. The copy I have was done in 1972.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

As a side note in Regards to Soviet Russia, back in the 60-70-80 ies there were hardly any imported pipe blends widely available out there and based of what I have been told aside of some Bulgarian and Cuban imported pipe tobaccies the only internationally know blends was Clan & Amphora Cavendish Red

 

[Gecko]

As a side note in Regards to Soviet Russia, back in the 60-70-80 ies there were hardly any imported pipe blends widely available out there and based of what I have been told aside of some Bulgarian and Cuban imported pipe tobaccies the only internationally know blends was Clan & Amphora Cavendish Red View attachment 26372

Thanks Paulie, I find most things related to the USSR fascinating.

 

[mso489]

About the mention of Kim Philby in the original post, what was it with the upper crust gents going against country and crown? Were they hard-pressed for money despite their high station in the class structure? Or were they starry eyed about communism? It's always struck me as odd that they went against everything that bought them stature. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Is there one answer, or do you have to take it one turn-coat at a time? I've never read enough to know how that worked.

 

[Gecko]

Well, here it is. Took a bit to get to pipe tobacco, but here's the first page, following about a 100 cigar and cigaret listing.

LINK to Pipe Tobacco- Harrods' 1895 catalog

The whole darn catalog is interesting!

Thanks for sharing the catalog, very interesting indeed.

In the catalog I found Players mixture that smudgersmissingleg mentioned a flake version of in a post above. A little googling gave me som cool 70s posters and told me that a ready rubbed version is still made today by Mac Baren. Although I doubt it has got much of the original recipe left in it.

 

[anotherbob]

About the mention of Kim Philby in the original post, what was it with the upper crust gents going against country and crown? Were they hard-pressed for money despite their high station in the class structure? Or were they starry eyed about communism? It's always struck me as odd that they went against everything that bought them stature. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Is there one answer, or do you have to take it one turn-coat at a time? I've never read enough to know how that worked.

Could also be a form of rebellion or eccentric affectation. Or it could be having too much time on their hands. What I don't get is not the fascination with communist ideology but with turning that in with a Government that does the very non communal types of behavior. What I am hinting at is there seems to be a tendency among the idle rich to have a disconnect between ideals and reality on a very base level. Though I imagine the motivations are as varied per person as are the faces on their heads.

 

[Gecko]

About the mention of Kim Philby in the original post, what was it with the upper crust gents going against country and crown? Were they hard-pressed for money despite their high station in the class structure? Or were they starry eyed about communism? It's always struck me as odd that they went against everything that bought them stature. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Is there one answer, or do you have to take it one turn-coat at a time? I've never read enough to know how that worked.

From what little I've read about spies it's seldom about money as main driving force. It seems to be more about narcissistic, psychopathic and/or mentally unstable personality combined with some political thoughts, mainly driven by a need to feel smarter than their surroundings. Philby seemed to believe that he was finding his place as a important cog in the universes passing by giving information to the USSR. In the end we are all heroes in our own internal stories.

When Philby got a telegram informing him that his second wife and mother of his children had died. He booked a lunch with some friends telling them he had some wonderful news to celebrate.

Truly a disgusting man.