CHALLENGE! What's The Oldest Snuff You Can Find?

@SunnyDay That’s horrible! @JosephJames. Great score!

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@volunge i think they just filled up those packages maybe because original content was rotten the coccoa seemed fresh but the package smelled of mold

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I bought a 1938 paper package of Italian snuff on eBay awhile back. I forgot the name but it was a pale brown almost toast. I should have saved the label but I threw it out. It had an eagle on it if that tells anyone anything. It’s my oldest snuff for sure and isn’t bad for its age. I wish I knew how to re-toast it!

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Found this while looking for alternative South African snuff source. Regretably, Taxi and NTSU seller at bidorbuy.co.za doesn’t ship internationally, but I stumbled upon this beautiful vintage blue glass bottle of Beroemde Menthol Snuif - Celebrated Menthol Snuff, made by Otto Landsberg in Cape Town somewhen between 1900-1950 (small amount still in the bottle). The empty bottle on the right without a label is dated ca. 1900 by another vendor.

imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-JWZPpOYtLgho

https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/447598009/VINTAGE\_MEDICINE\_BOTTLE\_OTTO\_LANDSBERG\_CO\_PTY\_LTD\_MENTHOL\_SNUFF\_SMALL\_AMOUNT\_STILL\_IN\_BOTTLE.html

http://verpakkingsglas.blogspot.com/2017/11/otto-landsberg-co-beroemde-snuif.html

“Otto Landsberg was multi-faceted and gifted man. Born in Germany in 1803, he immigrated with his parents and brothers to South Africa in 1818 and died in the Cape in 1905. In his lifetime of more than a century he was simultaneously artist, art teacher, musician and successful snuff merchant.” https://antiquarianauctions.com/lots/otto-landsberg-1803-1905-19th-century-south-african-artist

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@volunge great post!

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Snuff advertising and tins

3 tins of Van der Cruyssens Extra Peppermint snuff (Deinze, Belgium). The items are from ca 1920s. Not sure if tins contains any snuff inside.

Belgian snuff

https://www.doubleducks.nl/shop/antiek-curiosa/reclame-artikelen/45/snuif-tabak-reclame-en-blikjes/

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@volunge they look really cool! I love old snuff packaging. Thanks!

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About 10 years they ware sold in plastic boxes.

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This one is not really old - not older than 30 years, but still well worth your attention as a rare example of Portuguese snuff. Rape Ingles Cephalico (English Cephalic snuff), made in Azores by Fabrica de tabaco Micaelense (Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel).

Apparently, it was fine dry snuff - as seen in the last photo, uploaded by seller at https://www.todocoleccion.net/coleccionismo-tabaco/paquete-rape-fabrica-tabaco-micaelense-ponta-delgada-sao-miguel-acores-portugal-azores-aspirar~x134320110?fbclid=IwAR36TyzBMTTJe6-23DuvGwqk75KcfXxzfzESDlTxedVmq6Z7l\_ssK3xl7-4, current gross weight is 52 g (net weight indicated on the package - 50 g), so pretty much no moisture loss.


Rape Ingles Cephalico

Rape Ingles Cephalico 2

Rape Ingles Cephalico 3

Rape Ingles Cephalico 4
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Some info about genuine English cephalic snuff: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/traded-goods-dictionary/1550-1820/celandine-cephalic-snuff

And here’s one cephalic recipe, super easy to reproduce: “Boeli’s Cephalic Snuff consists of 2 drachms valerian, 2 drachms snuff, 3 drops oil of lavender, 3 drops oil of marjoram; mix. This is said to relieve the eyes as well as the head.” https://chestofbooks.com/reference/Encyclopedia-Of-Practical-Receipts-And-Processes/Patent-and-Proprietary-Medicines-Part-20.html (1 drachm - 3.89 g).

A photo of True Cephalic Snuff bottle (full): http://whitney.med.yale.edu/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?c=medinst&a=d&d=DmedinstbkBBCCAB

Empty bottle of True Cephalic Snuff (c 1850-1855): https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah\_728170

https://www.antique-bottles.net/threads/true-cephalick-snuff-by-the-kings-patent.384163/page-2 - scroll down to post #16 to see a photo of a huge Cephalic bottle.

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@volunge, nice find with that Latvian snuff. I’ve even found a cool poster of another Latvian factory from the 30s.
https://dom.lndb.lv/data/obj/482627.html

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I have a one pound tin of Gallagher Irish High Toast that I bought from a guy down under in Australia. It has a date stamp on the underside from 1944. It was unopened and still sealed in a paper bag closed with tape. It’s lost the Toast scent for sure. But it still is good. It’s one that I scent with a little 6photo Sandalwood. Must have travelled from Ireland to Australia during WWll. I know it’s got a good story behind it but I will never know.

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I thought my 2016 snuff was obsolete reading your comments it seems all new and fresh :slight_smile:

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@Snufferdemedicis, here’s a cube of vintage French Snuff! :slight_smile:

Would love to know, what it was about - grind, moisture, alkalizers, plain or scented. Do you happen to know the year of discontinuation?

Source: http://www.collections.musee-bretagne.fr/ark:/83011/FLMjo259956

Also: https://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/Cube-tabac-a-priser-poudre-ordinaire-regie-francaise-des-tabacs/133517992138?hash=item1f164ae0ca:g:oyAAAOSw85tfXc6r

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Nice colection of vintage American snuff jars: https://www.peachridgeglass.com/2012/07/snuff-jars-from-the-jane-charles-aprill-collection-and-some-more/

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I have some 1938 Italian dry toast called Regna something, lost the label. Still quite good. 1943 Gallagher High Dry Toast, unopened 1 pound tin, sent to a soldier in Australia during the war, but he never received it. Pale and dry, with no biscuit scent, but still pretty good.

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I have an unopoened can of Gallerhers High Dry Toast I bought fifty years ago.  Will still burn your nose

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@elmos I also have a one pound tin of Gallagher’s High Toast, from 1943. It’s still okay snuff but isn’t very toasty.

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Noteworthy, this 1 lb ball of snuff discovered by @rostanf is a very rare (if not the very last) example of snuff packaged in beef bladder. Not a parchment wrapper, like was suggested by someone on some other thread previously, but animal bladder.

According to this source, animal gullets were also used for the same purpose.

This not unheard of, though. Some old German books about tobacco processing mention animal bladders as perfect containers for storing snuff.

3VQM5NEMLXYS

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Health warnings became mandatory in the early 1990s (Directive 92 / 41 / EEC) with the words Causes Cancer. These boxes are therefore prior to 1992 and probably date from the 1980s or possibly the 1970s but not as old as the 1960s as, for example, Aniseed was not available in the little boxes during that decade.

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That’s a remarkable find. The once common process of using animal bladders as snuff containers is described by Mark Chaytor in ‘The Wilsons of Sharrow’ as being a tedious and dirty job to clean, but cheap enough at 1/2d per dozen. I’ve never seen a bladder of snuff before and it’s possible that this example (complete with label and stamps) is unique.

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