Various snuff related clips from British Pathe. I’m pretty sure the shop is the old Fribourg & Treyer shop.http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1656http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1657http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=44979

Hello Tony and thanks for sharing! How’s your wife, still in hospital? And how are you? I sincerely hope that both of you will be on the go before Christmas!

Good find ermtony, Just played a few seconds of each as I’m on my way out. It is the F&T shop by the way, I’ll play them all in the morning.

Thought I was right re the shop. My wife is still in hospital, not coping very well with the crutches and they won’t let her out until they’re sure she can cope. Not helped by her polyneuropathy, which affects balance quite badly. I think it will be next week before she’s home again. The house feels far too quiet without her here. Even after 30 years of marriage I miss her horribly when she isn’t here.

My best wishes for the both of you. My mother had MS. I’m sure your love and care are as important to her health and recovery as anything a doctor can do.

Tony, I’m sure I speak for the rest of us, but if there’s anything we can do to help, just say the word. I’ve been there before. i wish your wife and you the best.

excellent clips there … a 4 million pound industry in the sixties whoa

nice site as well type in tobacco lots of clips there

My uncle has MS as well Tony. Hopefully the upcoming cold weather will help out!

Great links! Was I the only one that couldn’t get sound on the second clip?

snuffegnugen yeah no sound on the second clip says so on the right hand side of video

Nice find. I do have a question. In those clips it seems they are taking quite small pinches. Is that normal for real(old time) snuffers? I take easily twice or more than that per sniff. I’ve always wondered what the average pinch size is. On here I’ve read everything from apple seed to woolly worm. Can anybody help a guy out?

I love old films like that…I was usually the projectionist nerd in school (remember ACTUAL FILM, kids?) because I was the only 4th grader who knew how to thread and frame a 16 mm. Enkei.

Great films! That site has all sorts of stuff, looks like I’m never getting anything done again. I was wondering about the pinch sizes, maybe they didn’t want snuff all over their faces on film. I know I take much smaller pinches in public.

And certain people made a stink about the way I titled one of my threads… I ain’t sayin’, I’m just sayin’.

Oh yeah, and thanks for sharing these links!

I never got to see the title, so I feel out of the loop. Thanks for the links Tony. Hope Penny gets better soon!

Fabulous clips. The shop is of course Smiths and there is a young Vivien Rose in there who was still around when I started using the shop in 1980, I can remember him using those scales to weigh the HDT I used to buy by the ounce and which he would put into your snuff box for you. A vanished world. I was born in '64 so wasn’t around for this snuff revival they mention -anyone old enough to remember it?

Great clips ! The British Pathe site is really good. Definitely the F&T shop - you can see “34” marked on the door in one shot and you can see the curve of the bow windows. (Which are still there, by the way. Last time I passed by it was a shop selling tourist tat). I like the snuff hankies with the tins of F&T on them ! P.S. Best wishes to your wife ermtony.

I think its the Smiths shop due to the outside shot and its exactly the right size with the scales where they used to be, also Vivien Rose is in the piece - he ran Smiths for years. More than happy to be proved wrong if anyone else spots some clues!

There are clips from both shops. Notice the bow windows in the background from time to time.

Very eagle eyed John, I only spotted the Smiths.

Nigel, It’s a pity we don’t get a shot of the Snuff jars on the top wooden shelf at the F&T shop. With the years of reaching and sliding the jars down, there was very distinct grooves worn into them.

Yes indeed, they were distinctly worn. There is a good picture of the shelves in Hugh McCausland’s ‘Snuff and Snuff Boxes’ - imho the best book about snuff ever. If you don’t have a copy it’s well worth searching for, sadly out of print for 50 years.

My copy isn’t for sale

Mine neither

@Bigmick - I think the traditional pinch was smaller - certainly ‘doing lines’ or snorting snuff was not the done thing when this film was made.

@ Snuffter, what is the F&T( Haymarket ) shop now? I recollect it was opened as a childes clothes possibly Mothercare. Last time I was in London it was one of those cheap trinket shops selling tatty made Big Ben castings with thermometers that didn’t work, Beef Eaters, Union Flags etc. Enough to make you cry.

Its still that sort of thing; cards, beefeaters and union jacks. There’s always a tear in my eye if I walk past.

Well it just goes to show that rubbish will sell better then snuff! Mind you maybe the time is now right for it to be retaken as a snuff shop. Roderick are you there?

That would be a wonderful progression of his business, but I expect the costs of being there are sky high. I believe the original F and T closed due to the lease expiring and them being priced out. Maybe it just coincided with retirement - I can’t imagine they genuinely unable to buy the lease back.

Yea, them Trinket shops all sell the same high priced junk, I reckon that they are all owned by the same firm and make their money with tourist just wanting to take something home from London.

I want to take snuff home next time I’m in London! The empty tins make better trinkets, plus they are even more useful.

Well, when a trinket shop can sell a die-cast or plastic model of Big Ben for $10, made in china with slave labor for $.22, vs a snuffshop who has local labor and needs to procure tobacco leaves, scents, perfumes, etc, who is more readily going to be able to afford a lease? Tourists will buy anything you offer them. On a side note, my wife just opened the front door coming in from work, and the slight draft just sent a crushing wave of Cheese & Bacon from the CLOSED AND NOT TOUCHED IN A WEEK bag 10 feet away into my nose. Good stuff, Roderick.

A tobacco shop especialy a world class one I think would be better suited in a place somewhat lower rent and out of the way! Who wants to deal with tourist anyways while shoping for some good tobacco.