Dunhill Nightcap

There was a time when Dunhill tinned tobacco was not the finest available, after all pipe smoking preceded Alfred Dunhill by several centuries. But to steal a phrase, once Alfred put his apron on there was 'none better'.

It appears from a photograph attributed to 1909 that initially Dunhill tobaccos were sold in non-vacuum half pound and pound tins bearing a My Mixture labels in two different but similar styles and similar to that used for the following half century.

It appears from a photograph attributed to 1909 that initially Dunhill tobaccos were sold in non-vacuum half pound and pound tins bearing a My Mixture labels in two different but similar styles and similar to that used for the following half century.

World War I saw the introduction of the ‘knife-lid’ or ‘cutter top’ tin a tin which allows for long term storage and transportation, and with that the introduction to the world of the now classic Dunhill blends. A ‘knife-lid’ or ‘cutter-top’ tin is an air tight container with two tops. The inner thin metal top seals the tobacco in the container. The outer top which fits over the top portion of the container has a small sliding knife element which is used to open the sealed inner top. The knife element is activated by sliding it in about an eighth-inch from the edge. The outer top is then replaced over the container and pushed downward so that the knife element pierces the inner top. The outer top is then twisted all the way around the tin so that it fully cuts the inner top. Once done the inner top is removed and thrown away and the knife element is slid back out of harms way. The tobacco is now ready to be smoked with the outer top being used as a, non-airtight, cover.

From at least the early 1920’s Dunhill generally sold it’s tobacco in four ounce knife lid tins for between a $1.00 (Three Year Matured Virginia) to $2.50 (Royal Yacht & Cuba) with the average price being $1.50.

Most blends popular today were available then plus a number of mixtures which have since disappeared from general distribution including, Super, Savory’s, Baby’s Bottom, Durbar, Prince of Wales, Harmony, and Shell. But times were not free from inflation for by the mid ‘20s Three Year Matured had soared to $1.25. Then however, blend prices stabilized, increasing only modestly over the next forty years.

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