Tobacco package

The packages and wrappers of tobacco give a beautiful vision on the history of advertisement. They illustrate the style, and fashion of the time but also the appreciation of the product. When small workshops for cutting tobacco grow and transform into factories standardisation is introduced in the packing of tobacco. The fashion of the time is illustrated by the choice of the paper, the shape of the packages and especially the print on the outside.

Till late in the twentieth century the original wooden printing blocks are kept in use, like the one with the mottled horse. Next to these old fashioned styles new more luxourious designs are brought on market. Hendriks in the town of Kampen for instance packed his tobacco in a colourfull printed paper with the view on a landscape with hills and piramids, while not very logical in the front tobacco plants are cultivated. Other wrappers are as colourfull but more designed for a text.

With the introduction of the machine filled tobacco wrapper the tobacco bag is replaced by a sheet of printed paper. These sheets are often folded over an underpaper. Of course the design follows the shape of the package.

When wrappers are bought by traditional customers, the design is withdrawn and often oldfashioned. The wrappers for baai-tobacco are illustrative for that. Some factories however have a more modern approach. An example is the fresh design by Jac Jongert produced for the Dutch firm Van Nelle in Rotterdam, that leaves every tradition far behind.

In the 1930's we still meet with old-Dutch portraits and interiors, having the look of the cowsy smoking father blowing clouds of pleasant smelling smoke in the room. These designs are later replaced by that one of an airplane. Slowly onwards the design becomes straighter, especially when the importance of the plain long cut tobacco is replaced by aromatic flavored tobaccos and certainly the cigarette. Modern design proves more interested in the cigarette box with its colourfull Egyptian or Turkish design than for pipe tobaccos.

After 1950 the only innovation is the introduction of the pouch, the wrapper with the round going illustration covered with plastic. This certifies the freshness of the tobacco while the plastic protects the paper so that the brand name remains visible.

 a beautiful illusionistic wrapper showing a pyramid in the desert with tobacco plants in the front, Hendriks, Kampen, the Netherlands, 1880-1900 a nice label showing ribbons with text combined with flowers, Primrose, England, 1890-1900
the label covering a square packeage of tobacco from a wrapping machine, Louis Dobbelmann, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1880-1910
a traditional tobacco bag the style going back to the eighteenth century, Hinderikus Roelfsema & Co., Winschoten, the Netherlands, 1880-1920
a beautiful and romantic tobacco wrapper from the time of the First World War, Belgium, 1910-1920
mark The White Ox from the eighteenth century owned by Douwe Egberts in Joure, at present still in use in their museumshop, Joure, the Netherlands, 1900-1920
characteristic illustration of the smoker from the times that the manufacturer was no longer inspired by pipe tobacco, Louis Dobbelmann, Waddinxveen, the Netherlands, 1920-1930 nice design for a traditional Dutch tobacco, although not really sales promoting, Coöperatie, Rotterdam, 1920-1930
a beautiful fresh and streamlined design by Jac Jongert for Van Nelle Factories in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1920-1940
in this design text and illustration go very well together while the different colours blue work as if it is a colourprint, wedow C.D. van den Helm, Zwolle, the Netherlands, 1900-1940
a design quite obvious for the contents, for the various tobaccos existing in different colours, Nederlandse Verbruikscoöperatie, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1920-1940
with this design existing in different colours, the manufacturer tries to imitate the famous brand red star, Balma, Maastricht, 1925-1935
modern but still dated: an airplane in the clouds alternated with texts, Fokke van der Meulen, Drachten, the Netherlands, 1930-1960
simple but clear with a slight touch of history, the Netherlands, 1930-1960
a Dutchman from the Golden Age, the texts play an important role with this design , Gebroeders Jacobs, Meppel, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
the smoking Dutchman, a free interpretation of a seventeenth century portrait painter in modern colours, Taconis, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, 1930-1950
the traditional and honest portorico packed behind an historical colour and an antique seal, Groenendijk, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1930-1960
a man dressed in an historical costume smoking, the style from a period that tobacco had not yet discovered, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
a remarkable brand showing a big stone in the centre, Erven Fokke van der Meulen, Drachten, the Netherlands, 1930-1950
a cowsy Dutch atmosphere with a man smoking a woman serving coffee or tea, Douwe Egberts, Joure, the Netherlands, 1950-1970
the wellknown brand the boat based on an historical mark but here modernised, Fokke van der Meulen, Drachten, the Netherlands, 1950-1970
this typical nineteenth century design is based on an early label but the modernisation transformed it into an ugly but specific result, Firm I. Spanjer, Rijssen, the Netherlands, 1950-1975
a colourfull design with a great simplicity a pipe against a cloud of smoke and a minimum of text, Firm I. Spanjer, Rijssen, the Netherlands, 1935-1965 a very old motive here in silver against a black background, Louis Dobbelmann, Waddinxveen, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
a characteristic rectangular bag with Dutch mill used by a shop serving many foreign tourists, Egbert Broers, Alkmaar, the Netherlands, 1930-1950
a fresh and modern design, a clean shaven man with a streamlined pipe, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
the three black amors an old design repeated on a modern wrapper, Eindhoven, 1950-1970
textual design with more information than illustration, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
pouch with an American based design, the Netherlands, 1950-1960
Illustrations on this page from the Pijpenkabinet collections
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