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.

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Meh...

Sobranie. After having smoked the Original White Mixture, 759, and Virginia No. 10, this name arouses respect that approaches veneration in my mind.

So, you can imagine my anticipation when I saw my friend Jon Guss pull the above-depicted tin from his bag. I’d read about this blend in my research on the brand. I knew that its origins were that it was a blend originally reserved for the Directors of Sobranie. I figured that I was in for a treat.

When Jon cracked the tin, a sweet pungence filled the air. As I put my nose close to the greasy, sugary paper insert, I remarked, “This smells like Christmas in a tin.” Adam Davidson sniffed the tobacco, shaking his head yes. “This is like a really good fruitcake,” he observed. Those of us around the table gazed at the tin like a gaggle of chain-gang refugees watching a prime rib being carved. Was there drool? I’m not sure; I couldn’t look away from the tin as Jon peeled the insert away from the nearly black tobacco ribbons. The insert was bearded with ribbons; the tobacco plateau looked dewy because there were so many crystals littered atop it.

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The Limitations of Experience

As related to pipe-smoking, few things annoy me so much as the arrogant certainty of some pipe smokers who believe, because they have smoked a pipe for some 30 to 40 years or more, that they know all there is to know on the subject.

Invariably, these people accredit their opinions by their long experience, implying that knowledge and wisdom are conveyed by virtue of having passed time with a pipe in their kisser. They trumpet, “I’ve smoked a pipe for over 40 years, and blah, blah, blah (insert opinion-of-the-day here)….”

Bullshit. Many have smoked a pipe for 1 year and repeated that single year 39 times.

Decades of jamming Prince Albert into a cob pipe will make you conversant with cobs and Prince Albert, but it certainly doesn’t substitute for active inquiry and experimentation with scores of different pipe makers and tobacco blenders over that same 40 years. By making this comparison, I am not denigrating Prince Albert or cobs, both of which are what they are, I am declaring that if that is all you have done, then you haven’t done much. This would be just as true for someone who has smoked Balkan Sobranie in an S. Bang. That experience would be just as limited.

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Relax with Edgeworth

It may not be Balkan Sobranie, Three Nuns, or one of the Cottons, but Edgeworth Slices sure has its fans. I’ve run across several tins of the Liggett and Myers version over the years, and when I’ve given it to a friend who I know loves burleys, the gratitude is almost overwhelming.

This is the only full tin of the original version I’ve seen, however. I was thrilled to get it. I love the tin art. And, much to my surprise, I love the tobacco, too.

Edgeworth tin unopened in original cellophane wrapperLarus and Brother, the Richmond, Virginia-based originators of the tobacco, went out of business in 1974. Although one sees the Larus tins for sale with some regularity, a full tin is a rarity. A tin with smokeable tobacco inside is rarer, still, because the tins relied on a cellophane wrapper, not on a seal. Obviously, the producers never expected their product to have to survive years – let alone decades – or they might have developed a more robust packaging solution. Cellophane is only slightly less durable than dragonfly wings.

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New Vintages Project Publications

Pipe scholars Ben Rapaport and Jon Guss have been hard at work creating new publications for the Vintages project. There are not one, but two new articles ready for your study and enjoyment.

For meerschaum fans, Ben’s article includes a redacted transcription of a rare oral history recalling noted meerschaum carver Gustav Fischer and his son.  The interview was conducted with Gustav Senior’s daughter-in-law, Anna, a few years before her death.

Jon’s article explores strategies and common errors in dating 19th Century pipes and tobaccos. It’s a thoughtful and clear presentation on how to apply methodologies used in other disciplines to improve our own accuracy.

These publications are real gifts to our hobby. I hope you enjoy them and treasure them as much as I do.