I never visited Morlaix on the coast of Brittany but the genuine tabac à priser was once available all over France, sold in light brown waxed paper parcels which as memory serves, was about 250 grams in weight.
Interestingly in each town and village the tobacconist was often opposite a stone effigy of Poilu in varied heroic poses, commemorating that town’s loss in the share of 1,300,000 Frenchmen killed during the Great War of 1914-18.
It was an all-natural snuff with no added scents, coarse, dark brown and very pungent with tobacco flavour – nothing like the fake Morlaix sold under the Fribourg & Treyer label today.
The closest snuff in flavour was Samuel Gawith’s ‘London Brown’ but the Morlaix, while still coarse, was a more evenly textured and slightly drier snuff which made it easier to take in large quantities.
Below is a potted history of the snuff and tobacco industry at Morlaix which may interest some here. All production came to an end in 2004, alas. Even something as Gallic as Gauloise, is now manufactured in Alicante in Spain.
It is nothing new that English snuffs, which take their name from French cities where there were formerly royal snuff factories, do not in any way reconstruct any of the snuff produced there. However, I have always liked the theory suggested by snuff such as Jockey Club, i.e. that fragrances are supposed to refer in some way to the region. It would be very romantic if this theory were ever confirmed.
Very interesting article. It’s always nice to read some additional material about a place that is referenced by one of my favorite snuffs, Wilsons of Sharrow Morlaix.
Wilsons of Sharrow - Jockey Club. I don’t know how long Wilsons have made it, but this is one of those old non-proprietary named snuffs that should to be sampled at some time. The Jockey Club was founded in 1750 and governs trainers and jockeys. How ‘The Jockey Club’ became associated with snuff is a matter of speculation. One account by Mr. Aytoun Ellis is that the scent is “a bouquet compounded of bergamot, jasmine, mimosa, tuberose, orris and violet in imitation of the pleasant fragrance that pervaded the Downs at Epsom in the late spring and was wafted across the course from the woods to the Jockey Club in the Grandstand.” Be that is it may, this is a snuff that might be a little too perfumed for some - myself included.
(This was an old review I wrote for some site or another. The description by Mr. Aytoun Ellis is remarkably ‘fiortura’.)
This is exactly the description of Aytoun Ellis I had in mind. It would be an extremely interesting concept if the combination of other aromas in other snuffs resulted in a scent reminiscent of another region - as in the case of Jockey Club. This would certainly explain many of the names of snuff! However, for Morlaix it would probably be too good to be true. Nevertheless, it is an interesting puzzle as to why there are names of French cities in English snuffs - apart from a certain reminder of old times.
I have the recipes for all these regency period snuffs classed as Rappee and made by Taddy & Co in London. Esterházy could refer either to Schloss Esterházy or the aristocratic family who employed the services of Joseph Haydn for much of his life. The list is limited to just the Taddy snuffs. A full list of British snuffs with the names of foreign cities/countries to pique the interest of contemporary snuff-takers must be very extensive. At a time when foreign travel was limited to the Grand Tour for the wealthy or businessmen with foreign interests, a foreign name conjures up a suitable mystique.
Amersfoort (and Black Amersfoort)
Amsterdam Fine
Amsterdam Gros
Black Strasbourg
Bolongaro
Bordeaux
Dunkirk
Esterházy
Facon de Paris
Frankfurt
Martinique
Navarino
Paris
Red Strasbourg
St. Domingo
St. Omer
St. Vincent
With the memory of Waterloo fresh in mind back then there are also snuffs called Wellington and Blucher – but not (unsurprisingly) one called Napoleon.
I have an author event at my local library this month where I will be talking a bit about my book, but I have also been asked to bring a few tins from my collection. I thought I would probably bring a few Jockey Club tins, from different companies, to show the snuff nomenclature. So I decided to look into the name a bit more. And the truth is, Mr. Aytoun Ellis was right. What he describes is “Jockey Club Perfume.” And that was the name that those snuffs were available under in the past.
According to “Poucher’s Perfumes, Cosmetics and Soaps — Volume 1” This name was originally given to a perfume which was said to be an imitation of the fragrance pervading the Downs at Epsom before the Derby. Perfumes bearing this name all differ materially in odor value: bouquets may be compounded from jasmine, mimosa, rose, tuberose, orris and bergamot.
It’s also hard to find any connections with snuff here, because with such a description it currently falls into the same categories as Apple, Coffee or Violet. The only connections we could forcefully make are snuff boxes that were given to the club. I just found one such mention, that one was supposed to have been given by William IV.
I agree with you. If ever there was a ‘Jockey Club’ scent pervading the downs at Epsom (which I doubt) it has long since vanished. Personally, I believe that this explanation is pure fancy in an attempt to tenuously link fragrance with Epsom’s Jockey Club. The only woodland scents I ever notice are from bluebells or wild garlic, and both are past their prime by Derby Day.
According to Mary Robinson in ‘The Marriage between Perfume and the Lyric Stage’ the English version of Jockey Club perfume was originally created by the House of Rimmel in 1851 for use with handkerchiefs. An earlier American version (1840) was Caswell Massey’s Jockey Club Cologne. Earlier still are the French versions Jockey-Club Parfum/Parfum de Jockey-Club.
The Jockey-Club de Paris was founded in 1834. Members of this elite association had numerous private boxes at the Paris Opera, and it seems more likely to me that the Jockey Club perfume was redolent of the eau de cologne pervading the opera house rather than woodland scents wafted across Epsom Downs.
Here too I agree, because when I did some reconnaissance I also came across similar information. The original scent must have been French, and the English descriptions are an attempt to take away their honors. This is a rather sad ending for the mystery of this name, although quite interesting in terms of the penetration of the world of snuff into the name of an aromatic composition strictly related to the perfume industry. I don’t know if I can think of another example at the moment.
I can guess that in your positively gargantuan collection of snuff containers, probably the largest collection of its kind, you will be taking sample tins of Jockey Club for your talk from:
G. Smith & Sons
Gawith Hoggarth (Jockey Club Special)
Illingworths
J&H Wilsons
Wilsons of Sharrow
Samuel Gawith
Label designs for earlier versions by each manufacturer vary, so you will likely be taking more than six samples. Are there other manufacturers, British or otherwise, of Jockey Club snuff apart from the above list? Your book doesn’t mention it, so I presume there is no Polish version.
The only irrefutable English link between snuff and the English Jockey Club is, as you have pointed out, a snuff box made from the hoof of a successful thoroughbred called Eclipse and presented to the club by William IV in 1832.
I had a look at reviews for Jockey Club snuff on the Mr. Snuff pages and one poster (Eric Perlinger) claims that it is named after a cultivar of the Hemerocallis (Daylily) plant, nicknamed Jockey Club. However, according to the American Daylily Society the cultivar only dates from 1972. Therefore the cultivar is named after Jockey Club rather than Jockey Club being named after the cultivar - so the claim may be discounted.
English-origin snuffs did not appear on Polish soil until the 1990s. As for the Jockey Club itself, it was officially available in Poland only twice: Hedges (in the 1990s) and Wilsons of Sharrow.
The list of companies that had them in their offer that I know of is:
Hedges
Alfred Preedy & Sons
Frederick Tranter
G. Smith & Sons
Gawith Hoggarth
Illingworths
J&H Wilsons
Wilsons of Sharrow
Samuel Gawith
P.J. Carroll
I have recipes for six Primary Scotch snuffs (and eighteen Scotch Mixtures) and fourteen Primary Rappee snuffs (and sixty-eight Rappee Mixtures). This for a total of one hundred and six snuffs. The twenty Primary snuffs all call for manufacture on an industrial scale and come with formal recipes in their own book. The mixtures, as one would expect, are much simpler and are listed in another book together with copious notes made by a junior partner at the House of Taddy & Co. The two books cross reference each other and the junior partner expands upon each Primary recipe in more detail.
A number of these formulas are already available for viewing on this site although, being scattered, I’m not sure how you would find them all.
The one snuff I would particularly like to see resurrected is the unique Violet Brown Scotch the recipe for which is buried somewhere on this site. The secret of making it was known to just two London Houses – Sales & Pollard and Taddy & Co – and for reasons unknown was very popular in the south-west counties, Cornwall in particular. According to the notes (four pages devoted to this snuff) an average of 100,000 lb was made annually and retailed at 3/6 per pound. The unusual colour was derived from the use of salt tartar.
I talked about snuff for exactly two hours at my author’s meeting today. Even four snuff lovers whom I have not met before showed up. Overall, it was great fun.
