Hi All, I’ve been re-reading my snuff book collection and one thing that seems common, is that all seem to have a section on ‘famous snuff users’. Being that most of these books are from the 1800’s, I was wondering if anyone has a more recent list of famous snuff users? I’ve recently added a piece on Charles Darwin’s snuff use to Snuff Store, but obviously that’s hardly recent - a BBC radio presenter has in his CV that he worked for the The Society of Snuff-Grinders, Blenders and Purveyors. In Patrick Allen’s obituary it states that he accepted honorary membership of the Society of Snuff-Grinders, Blenders and Purveyors, having lectured more than 1,000 people on the joys of taking snuff. I know that it was originally rumoured that Zuka Snuff tried to get David Hockney to front their launch, but nothing was mentioned about his actual snuff taking habits… So does anyone else have any more recent ‘famous snuff takers’ to add to the list? Tim Snuff Store

Stephen Fry is a snuff taker.

I can’t think off hand of any 20th or 21st C. snuffers but one 19th C. snuffer you can add to your list is the great Austrian romantic composer - Anton Bruckner. Bruckner snuffed whilst his contemporary, Johannes Brahms, chewed on cigars. Wagner offers a pinch of snuff to Bruckner

The British actor Sean Bean is a snuff taker. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000293/

Hi All Stu90 - I like the idea of Sean Bean being a snuff taker. I suppose due to the Sharpe series and all the snuff taking in it during the Napoleonic Wars. Very rugged. I had him down as being a smoker - what with his gravelly northern accent. Walrus1985 - Stephen Fry eh? Fantastic… Another actor luvvy! I thought he was great in the various Black Adder’s. Proboscis - That Wagner image is amazing! Filek - Is there a web link for the Polish Prime Minister’s snuff taking hobby? A World leader as a snuff taker… BrownNoser - Yes, very famous. I am a legend in my own lunchbox too! I’ll collate a list from the snuff books I have of historic snuff takers and add it shortly to this thread.

Filek that photo is excellent! Don’t worry about your English, it’s good - it’s much better than my Polish!

Helmut Schmidt took snuff, I remember seing him take a big dose of Gletcherprise on TV once - it was less than elegantly done and he got most of it on his face - moral: don’t use the back of the hand method when on international TV I have a good friend who was at RADA with Mr Bean, I’ll ask him if he took it then the next time I see him.

Also, Darwin - online.org.uk has some fascinating biographical stuff by his son where he describes his father’s habit and attempts to limit his intake. These included keeping the snuff in a jar in the hallway of his large house and later keeping his snuff with a neighbour! Basically to make it inconvenient to take…

NoseBag, I wanted to say congratulations. You have really put together one heck of a shop. Great snuff selection along with a good selection of snuff related accessories. Every time I turn around it seems I get a email newsletter showing your adding something new.

@FIlek: Zakładam, że to Kaszubska tabaka… jaka ona jest, wiesz? In english (I suppose it’s a Kaszubian snuff… do you know, what it is like?)

@snuffgrinder: I will try to spare some time for translation of that article. It is pretty hard even for me as a native speaker of Polish.

@Filek: Tylko z jednej połowy. Tato pochodzi z Siedlec, ale żyjemy w Czechach, bo mama jest cześka. Mam nadzieję, że jak będę następnym razem w Polsce to się tej tabaki dorwę, Jakie likery są używane? Ziołowe, vodka, czy coś zupełnie innego? @snuffgrinder: There are some info about production you could be interested in. Apart from that nothing really interesting. Btw. there’s a discussion about promoting young people snuffing (reffers to that picture).

i am famous. i use snuff. am i in?

Actually Napoleon Bonaparte was known to have used 7 pounds or roughly 3 kg a month!! Thats 84 pounds or 38 kg a year.

Yeah,that would explain 3kg/month

I think he probably shared a lot with his fellow man as well… Maybe even took some orally along with snuffing, and sprinkled it on his food like powdered bran.

would you not get severe nicotine poisoning from actually really eating bigger ammounts of snuff…? ches its probably about the social side of it. being mostly in public it probably was like at least three pinches shared for every pinch he had.

I have no idea if this is actually true but I read somewhere that virtuoso guitar player Eric Clapton used snuff. Wish I could remember the source.

With the Napolean thing you have to remember that he was the head of state. I believe that the sources are not that exact (remember it was nothing unusual to take it then, its like coffee drinkers today) and its probably more likely that he ordered several Kg a month as opposed to actually using it himself. Maybe a good part of that was given to other dignitaries and high ranking army officers as gifts? Someone here once calculated the amount he would have to put up his nose a day and it whilst it was feasible he would have had to spend a good part of his day with his head in is snuff box.

Boyd Rice “industrial-music maven, media provocateur, and dabbler in fascism and satanism” takes snuff - in fact a picture of him with a tin of Gawith Apricot was posted on here a while back. He’s rather more infamous than famous, though.

Philip K. Dick. “He dips his fingers into the tin of Dean Swift Snuff and sniffs it. He mentions Dean Swift snuff in some of his novels, and the company is grateful. Once in a while, he sends them a check for $20, and they send him about $100 worth of snuff. They have a variety of formulas, and one of Phil’s favorites is Mrs. Siddons. My personal favorite is Dean’s Own.”

I think if famous people did snuff, they probably would keep it to themself, as it’s an evil tobacco product, and may be a bad image for the children.

One of my Heros George Washington was a snuffer and I’m sure most of our founding fathers snuffed also as they where cultivators and conossieurs of tobacco and weed

It was just the norm then, that’s all.

Anybody have anything on Nostradamus? I wonder what he was sniffing!

Maybe computer cleaner aerosol cans?

Yes, evil evil tobacco. Not good for us at all :o))))))

Actually Martha Washington our first first lady used snuff and has a beautiful snuff box on display at the Mt. Vernon museum.

I just saw a bit of a movie on PBS tonight with Charles Darwin taking snuff. He did indeed take it from a box in the hallway. His young daughter pinched it for him and then sprinkled it on his hand. He made a grandiose sniff (as they tend to in movies) and then had an enourmous sneeze into a white handkercheif, which his daughter pulled from his pocket for him.

I found this link to a book called Snuff Yesterday and Today which mentions quite a few famous snuff takers from The Golden Age of snuff, including John Keats.

That’s a very good find Debbie, now I’ve some reading to do when I get the time.

Snuff Yesterday and Today is an excellent book, i bought a copy off Amazon.co.uk for about £20 in the antique book section. It was an ex library book and is in excellent condition. It was first printed in 1955 I believe. Damn good book I recommend it highly. Stefan

I think all the Chasidic masters used snuff and smoked pipes also. The Chasidic tales are full of stories about snuff.

good one … i couldnt see obama or the prime minister taking snuff

Snuff taking in the past was so commonplace that it would not have been recorded as an item of relevance or interest - much as a famous person today would invoke notice for being a cigarette smoker or wine drinker. Occasionally, however, one comes across an innocuous reference to snuff and a famous person - as in this letter from W.A Mozart. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni is listed in the 1968 Guinness Book of Records as among the most rapidly written music committed to paper. Wine, snuff, coffee and his sixteen year-old chambermaid provided the necessary sustenance. “I went to my writing table and sat there twelve hours on end, a small bottle of Tokay on my right, my inkstand in the middle and a box of Seville snuff on my left., on the first day, between the Tokay, the Seville snuff, the coffee, the bell and my young muse, I wrote the first two scenes of Don Giovanni, two others of L‘arbore di Diana, and more than half the first act of Tarar…” Small wonder little Wolfgang died young.

That mention of Seville snuff… What do you think he’s referring to brand wise? Do you think it’s similar to F&T or is Seville just used in this case as a type of snuff like scotch or rappee.

Unless I’m misremembering, Seville snuff was just snuff from Seville. I seem to recall Seville being the location of the first snuff mill to open in Spain, and being associated with quality and tradition. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. As I understand it, Seville snuff is about as brand specific as saying you’ve got some London snuff might have been a century ago.

I figured as much…

Yes, Seville is where Royal Spanish Tobacco factory was located, biggest in world, buildings are now state university and UNESCO heritage site.

Frederick The Great used snuff, especially under the stress of command. Once a musket balll hit a snuff box in his breat pocket, saving his life! Andrew Jackson also used it I believe. I know he collected snuff boxes.

You’re trying to suss out all of us who are old enough to remember that song, you rascal! But thanks, you gave me a good chuckle.

Oh, Clint has a house on the ocean down the road a bit. I’ll remember to ask him about it when I run into him again.

@juxtaposer you talking about carmel ? nice place clint eastwood was the mayor at one point

I can picture Clint as a snuff taker. He’s never given a damn about what anyone thinks of him – that’s why I admire him so much. His son Kyle is one hell of a jazz bassist, too.

On Po’olenalena beach at Makena on Maui, Hawaii.

Not to forget The Beatles (except Ringo who chewed red man), President Obama, Muhammad Ali (who can be seen using Top Mill No1 inbetween rounds 2 and 3 in the ‘thriller in Manilla’) Princess Di, Bruce Springsteen and of, course, Arthur Askey.

Snuffster it’s true what they say about london cops isn’t it. Once they retire they get both their Beatle facts and tobacco facts all muddled up? First off George was the Chewer in the Beatles why do you think he was the silent one! And he prefered mail pouch.

Dammit if you’re not right Bob!

Is it true Princess Diana used snuff ?and president Obama ?

I doubt that President Obama has used snuff, he is an ex-smoker. If he did it might have been out of courtesy on a trip overseas. Never heard anything about Princess Diana.

I created this image a while ago, just a joke of course… It’s supposed to be a tin of Toque sticking out of his pocket, not sure if it’ll show up.

Good old Helmut Schmidt, as mentioned by snuffster earlier, is still taking snuff and smoking like never! Very good.

@miamimark where’s his snuff-stache?

Someone told me that Frank Sinatra took snuff occasionally. I find it rather hard to believe considering just how much of a neat freak he reportedly was. If anybody knows anything more about this, I would love to know.

@furious I’m a neat freak and I LOVE snuff. I just make sure to wipe my face with my handkerchief!

Stanisław August Poniatowski - King of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in XVIII century; last one. He had given a plenty of snuff boxes to his people.

And did not like snuff and snuff takers.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Someone already mentioned Boyd Rice. Wanted to say that in a documentary about him, it shows him going into a tobacco shop and buying a whole box of Gawith Apricot. There was also an interview with him wearing a pith hat talking about his new MONO album where he is constantly sniffing. If you’re down with a little political incorrect subject matter and folk/industrial, definitely check out his album Music Martinis and Misanthropy.

I’m adding a page about “Famous Snuff-Takers” on the Modern Snuff website. Here is the page thus far:

http://www.modernsnuff.com/famous/

If you have any other names I could include or any interesting historical anecdotes to add, please post them here or email them to me at mark@modernsnuff.com. I’d love to make the page as complete as possible, and then I’ll add some images and portraits to the page. Thanks!

Mark

@markstinson - There too, the Snuff Takers’ Ephemeris is a terrific resource. Many good profiles of contemporary famous snuff takers, and sometimes examples of the sheer amounts they snuff daily.

I like the Padre Pio anecdote on your page. Never saw that one before. Quite sure Ben Franklin was a heavy snuffer, though there’s very little documentation about his habits and preferences.

@markstinson - by the way, a category I’d like to see on your site is technical information that may be useful to the amateur snuff maker. There’s so much on the web for those who want to learn to roll cigars, blend pipe tobacco, make dip or chewing tobacco or even snus, but the information is scant about crafting quality snuff on the amateur level. It’s about more than throwing cigar ends into a coffee grinder, that much we know. Any details of the art of the experts you can dig up should be showcased on the site.

Thanks, @cpmcdill.  I’ll look through STE and see if I can’t pick up a few more names for the list.

Snuff making is a topic I’d like to include on the website, eventually.  I have a plan for how to include that…and I’ll get to work on that after I get a few more of the main topic pages done.  There are a number of things I know I’ll be adding down the line, and that’s definitely one of them.

Thanks…

Mark

William Smith, the father of Geology was a great snuff taker. He concidered snuff boxes too small and just filled the pockets of his waistcoats with it resulting in a permanent brown stripe. (I can give a contemporary reference if required…)

Thank you @Talljim.  I added William Smith, and an anecdote about him towards the bottom of the page.  Appreciate it.

Mark

Jean Nicot, French ambassador in Portugal. Many say the founding father of Nasal Snuff in Europe. He used to take it in the belief it could cure headaches so much so that he introduced Queen Medici of France to this magical powder. With this began mass snuff taking in France among the aristocrats and so forth.

I guess Sir Vishnu Naipul is famous, he uses snuff. There’s a passage in Among The Believers where he offers a pinch to an Afghan tribesman, who is disgusted by his snuff and pulls out a box of his own. He’s a poly-tobacco user, he also smokes cigars and pipes.

Me, but I am just a figment of my imagination