Some of the brands of pipe tobacco produced by tobacco manufacturers F & J Smith in 1901. The "Glasgow Smoking Mixture" is the brand with which the firm was most commonly associated.
Two of the firm's brands of plug tobacco, Golden Bar and Yankee Plug, were at the time being produced largely for the troops in South Africa. In 1901, 80 per cent of the tobacco consumed in Britain was pipe tobacco; fifty years later, this proportion was claimed by cigarettes.
F & J Smith was able to obtain a healthy (!) share of the cigarette market partly by becoming one of the first tobacco firms to issue cigarette cards. Sets included "Fowls, Pigeons & Dogs" (1908); Cinema Stars" (1920, reprinted 1987); "Football Club Records", (1922); "Prominent Rugby Players" (1924, reprinted 1992) and "Holiday Resorts" (1925). These have now become collectors' items.
Reference: Mitchell Library, GC 679.7 BAR
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
Boer War, cigarette cards, cigarettes, F & J Smith, Glasgow Smoking Mixture, Golden Bar, pipe smoking, pipe tobacco, pipes, plug tobacco, South African War, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco merchants, tobacco tins, Yankee Plug