Dating Sullivan Powell's Gentleman's Mixture

Sullivan Powell’s Gentleman’s Mixture is one of those venerated vintage tobaccos about which connoisseurs wax poetic. Because so many good things have been written about the blend, it is rare. When one finds a tin, it usually sells for more money than I’m confortable spending for a tin of tobacco. If one is lucky, one spends $125-$150 for 50 gram tin. The tin depicted above had an asking price of $300, and I’m surprised that it wasn’t snapped up before I purchased it from a friend on Sunday night at the Chicago Show.

When a couple of ounces of excellent pipe tobacco can be purchased for $10 to $15, why are people willing to pay 30 to 50 times more for a decades-old tin?

Certainly, rarity plays a part. Things in limited supply tend to sell for more. Curiosity also wields power. If you have heard thought leaders like Tad Gage or Greg Pease rave about a blend you’ve never experienced, it is understandable that you would want to have that experience, yourself, if only to create a more educated palate. Romance and nostalgia also come into play. Many of us remember smoking storied blends like Balkan Sobranie and Gentleman’s Mixture way back in the day.

We wonder: “Is that tobacco as good as I remember?” or “I loved it then, but I wonder if my palate has changed?” We’d love to smoke an old favorite blend again.

Commerce in collectible vintage tobaccos is trending upwards, fueled by rapidly increasing prices. Specialty resellers like Pipestud have helped create a new market, and people with large cellars of aged tobacco in good condition are well-positioned to cash in. While not uniform, the return on investment can be astonishing.

The Gentleman’s Mixture tin you see here sold for under $3.00, and some 30 years later it was valued at 100 times that amount. At the Chicago Show, I encountered many tins of 20-year old Christmas Cheer that were priced at more than double their original selling price.

As one good friend of mine quipped, “Pipes are a lousy investment, but good vintage tobaccos are almost a sure thing.”

Fine, aged, and rare tobaccos are analagous to fine, aged, and rare wines—at least in terms of how they are talked about. Even the word “vintage,” the root of which (vin) is French for wine, has been appropriated from the world of wine. The “vintages” frame of reference is freighted with a range of meanings and assumptions, the most significant of which is that some years are better than others in terms of the tobacco crop–an opinion that is repeatedly shared by leading blenders and manufacturers–and, if you share my opinion–it is not an opinion; it is a fact. Secondly, it is assumed that the older a tobacco is, the better.

It is not my experience that the longer a tobacco has been aged under appropriate conditions, the better it is likely to be, so long as its tin has not been compromised. It is true for some tobaccos, but not for others. My palate tells me that aging significantly improves Virginias, but weakens English blends. The herbal sweetness of Latakias fades over time, changing the character of the blend.

The irony is not lost on me that the most highly sought-after of vintage blends–Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture and 759–are adversely affected by too much age in terms of their English character. The Virginias in them, however, markedly improve, and those who are privileged to smoke them still find them delicious, if different in character from when they were fresher.

In the pipe world, we are obsessed with dating years of production. Thus, the specific year a tobacco was produced is increasingly of interest to buyers and sellers. It is a challenge, however, to date a tin of tobacco. Sometimes the best we can do is narrow down to a range. To do that, we must consider the clues the packaging gives us.

So, when might the depicted tin of Sullivan Powell’s Gentleman’s Mixture have been produced?

Manufactured by the House of Sobranie, Gentleman’s Mixture was first introduced in late 1974. Thus, we know that this tin can be no older than 40 years of age. It was distributed by Hollco until 1981 when JBR succeeded them. Therefore, the Hollco distribution sticker affixed to the bottom of the octagonal box confirms that the tobacco must have been produced no later than 1981. We know as a matter of fact that the tobacco was produced sometime between 1974 and 1981. Is it possible to further narrow the production date?

Introductory price lists and the picture at right both confirm that early production Gentleman’s Mixture was sold in 2 ounce tins. My tin contains only one and three quarter ounces, an amount that closely approximates 50 grams, the net-contents amount that was sold in flat tins when James B. Russell distributed the blend. We know that House of Sobranie’s transition from ounces to grams in its own branded products occurred sometime in 1978-79. It is reasonable to assume that Sullivan Powell tobacco packaging conventions mirrored Sobranie’s.

Therefore, from the evidence, one can reasonably hypothesize that my tin was produced in the latter years in the 1974-81 date range, probably between 1978 and 1980.

There is one further piece of evidence I discovered yesterday while speaking with my friend, Jon Guss, about dating this tin–evidence that you cannot see because I had already photographed the packaging.

One nagging question kept coming up: Why did the box have a sticker affixed to it when the tin label inside the box printed was printed with the 1 3/4 oz. content designation and was not stickered? Did the sticker on the box cover a 2 oz. content designation? I had wondered whether the mustard-colored octagonal box–fancy packaging that might have accompanied a new product launch–might signal that the tin was older (or at least that the box was older).

So, I retrieved a razor blade and cautiously peeled the gold foil sticker away from the box. We were both surprised to discover that the sticker did, in fact, cover different content information, but it was not what we expected. Under the sticker I discovered “Net Contents 50 grams”.

This last bit of information confirms that the tin was produced when packaging transitioned to the metric system. So, I am confident that this tin is approximately 35-years old, give or take a year.

A special thanks to tobacco-historian and scholar Jon Guss for his assistance in creating this post. To read more about dating tobaccos, vist the Vintages section of this website.

Comments

[Richard Esserman]

Neill you wrote - The irony is not lost on me that the most highly sought-after of vintage blends–Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture and 759–are adversely affected by too much age in terms of their English character - I disagree with this assessment. I smoke about 4 to 8 tins a year of Sobranie White and 759 - both pop-top and flat pancake tins - and based upon my smoking experience - the English Character is still quite evident and can even be overpowering especially with 759. Just my experience. Rich Esserman

[Neill Archer Roan]

Rich, I certainly respect your assessment. Thanks so much for commenting.

[Rick Newcombe]

I agree with Rich Esserman. I know some people have said what Neill wrote -- that cellaring English blends does not necessarily improve their taste. My own experience has been that English tobaccos are best after being aged for 10 years, and, because they have Virginias, the longer the better. But as John Loring said, if you hit 10 years with an English blend, you're fine. I have some Sullivan Powell Gentleman's Mixture, but I always add Latakia to the blend and let the flavors marry before smoking it. That's just personal preference.