April 25, 2016

The tale of the “Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale”

Alleman’s Tabak, made by the DTC

This story began a couple of years ago when Martin gave me an old looking pack of tobacco at one of the Zutphen meetings. He had it in his possession for a long time but figured it was in better hands with me. The name on the pack was “Alleman’s Tabak” (Every man’s tobacco) with a nice looking picture on it of people from all races dancing around a smoking pipe. But what mostly caught my eye was where it was made: The Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale (Diepenveen Tobacco Centre) in Deventer. Hmmm, Deventer is the nearest city to Olst, where I live (about 10 km. away) and the village of Diepenveen lies in between those. Ellen and I sometimes cycle to Diepenveen in summertime because of the beautiful nature along the way. At home I began to search for the Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale (DTC) on internet and soon stumbled upon a small book about the subject written by Jan Jansen (a former tobacconist) and Ben Droste. It was already out of print but I managed to snatch up a copy (thanks to PRF member Carro) at De Oude Leeuw tobacconist. So here is the tale of the Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale.

Perhaps this SS-officer was smoking some Dutch tobacco..

When the Netherlands were invaded by the Germans in May 1940 it soon became clear that many ships loaded with foreign tobacco were not going to make it to our harbours. It was estimated that the current stock at the time would last for 3 years. This was thanks to the cigar-industry which kept a multiple-year supply in order to be able to blend a good melange in years of a disappointing harvest. So there was enough smoking leaf stocked in the warehouses and everyone assumed we were going to keep that supply. That we would be stuck 3 years or more with our undesirable Eastern neighbours seemed like a ridiculous idea at the time. But before the Germans occupied our small country they were one of the biggest buyers of our cigars and other tobacco products. In other words, they knew what we had and with haste they registered our tobacco stock and transferred 60% of it to Germany. Then it was estimated that the Dutch tobacco industry had supplies to keep producing until the middle of 1941… Whoops…

Rationing voucher

Spring 1942. The war was raging for almost 2 years and even the most desperate smoker understood that the ships loaded with tobacco, coming for example from our former colony of Indonesia, were not arriving. However, tobacco products were not rationed yet but especially foreign brands were terribly expensive due to scarcity. For the common man rationing did not seem too bad, at least everything would be divided equally then. And indeed, on 17 May 1942 tobacco and candy were rationed. First every man got 50 gram per week (women got less…) but in 1943 that was reduced to a mere 20 grams.

Amateur tobacco grower

At the end of the first war-year it was reported in the press that in that year about 22 hectares of tobacco were grown, almost half of it by private citizens. Many amateurs had risen. They had seen the coming storm and bought some seeds or plants. They were not nine-day wonders, they plodded on with this tricky crop and gained more and more followers. Soon the government informed the amateur tobacco growers that they could get their harvest fermented and cut at Rijksbureau voor Tabak en Tabaksproducten (National Bureau of Tobacco and Tobacco Products) recognized companies. Upon delivery to the customer excise duty and sales tax had to be paid. The companies could not ask more than fixed prices. Especially the very important fermentation of the tobacco leaves was difficult for the amateur grower. Growing the tobacco-plant, harvesting the leaves and drying them was doable with a proper instruction. But it was not for nothing that the government forbade the amateur grower to ferment his own tobacco. That was a job for a professional and it was a shame to waste valuable ground to tobacco that had gone bad due to a clumsy fermentation process.

DTC founders Van Santen, Keurhorst and Weverling

The founders of the DTC choose a good moment to launch their plan. After 2 years of war the need was great with the smokers. The main founder was horticulturist Keurhorst. He was not just any horticulturist, his letters were crooked but he could read and write with plants and flowers which earned him many prizes and certificates. Without doubt he examined the experiences of growing tobacco on Dutch soil very thoroughly when he saw opportunities in the tobacco-market at the break-out of war. There was money to be made with being a Rijksbureau voor Tabak en Tabaksproducten recognized company. He also wanted to grow tobacco plants and process those into chewing and pipe tobacco, cigarettes and cigars but realized he lacked the knowledge for this. So he approached a man called Weverling. Weverling was destined by his parents to be a teacher but he “escaped” to Indonesia. After a few jobs, while travelling through the islands, he ended up managing work at tobacco plantations. in 1936 he returned to The Netherlands and went to live in Diepenveen where he first met his wife. It was easy to get Weverling excited for Keurhorst his plan. After his return he wanted to live from the trade in (mostly Indonesian) stocks but due to the war that went pretty wrong. Besides, Weverling was not a man who liked to do nothing and this brought him some work. The most important task assigned to him was the fermentation of the tobacco.

Van Nieuwland

The third and final founder was Van Santen. His duty was to start up and manage the administration of the starting company, get all the permits etc. The aim of the German occupier to control all processes in our society led to a large and often untransparent bureaucracy. The rules were plentiful and meticulous. Keurhorst did not have to worry any more about the fermentation of the tobacco. However, cutting it.. For that he choose a company in Deventer with a long history: Harm’s ten Harmsen with Van Nieuwland as director (together with his father), founded in 1758. From the start it was a”mixed” business. It traded in tobacco and tobacco products but it also processed the leaf into snuff and pipe tobacco and cigars.

DTC founders

The 3 men must have done an enormous amount of work in their first year. In fact everything they did at the starting corporation was new for them. Besides the time pressure was huge. Everything had to be ready so customers could send in their home-grown tobacco to let it ferment and cut. They very wisely decided to limit them selves to the service to the amateur grower in stead of immediately trying to grow tobacco of their own. The tension must have been great. Do the permits come in time? How much tobacco is going to come in? Will the new company be able to deliver an acceptable product? Will the tropic experience of Weverling hold up in the Dutch climate? Will they be able to manage the complicated administration? Oh, about the administration, it turned out that Van Santen did not do a good job. So after a heated argument he left the company and Van Nieuwland took over his work. The whole administration was even moved to the address of Harm’s ten Harmsen.

Horst & Maas factory

On 16 March 1943 the Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale was registered at the Trade Register. Soon they encountered a problem; there were not not enough available free spaces for the drying and fermentation of the tobacco in Diepenveen (poor on industry). However, in Deventer stood the factory of Horst & Maas (where amongst others cigar brand Nederlandsche Munt was made) and because of the war activity here had become minimal. The DTC got 18.000 m3 available for their activities. The representative building also accommodated a large scale demonstration of the fermentation process for amateur growers on 7 November 1943.

DTC bill

So how did the exact process go when amateur growers wanted to send in their home-grown tobacco to be fermented and cut by the DTC?
1. You had to register at the DTC.
2. The costs of registering had to be paid.
3. You got a card from the DTC on which you had to write how much tobacco you were going to send.
4. You got a message from the DTC in which was asked if you wanted shag, pipe or chewing tobacco. Then you could send the tobacco.
5. After the fermentation and cutting the tobacco would be send home. Costs had to be paid upon receiving the package
Important to know was that it was not possible to get back the same tobacco one send in due to technical reasons. The melange would not be tasty with tobacco coming from just one package. Besides, fermenting and cutting very small batches of tobacco was not doable. Upon receiving a package the DTC checked the quality of it. So when someone send in an A-quality batch of tobacco he got an A-quality batch back.

DTC founders and some employees

It is clear that for all this work the DTC needed a lot of hands. But getting employees was a perilous undertaking in the war. Already in the first years of the war the Germans were recruiting workers in the occupied areas who had to take the places of the men in the German industry who had to fight in the front lines. In the beginning the appearance of voluntariness was upheld. The tactic then was: make them unemployed and offer them work elsewhere (read: Germany). They could not reasonably refuse that and if they did that was a good excuse to arrest them. To escape that employment in Germany a cat and mouse game went on in the tobacco sector in which the Centraal Distributie Kantoor (Central Distribution Office) and the Rijksbureau voor Tabak en Tabaksproducten often secretly sided with the mouse. They must have known that the fields with meters high tobacco plants were ideal hiding places for a couple of months per year for people who had to hide. In Diepenveen it was secretly known that persons in hiding worked at the DTC. Those people were called “volunteers” because you did not have to name volunteers in the administration books. So for an important part the company relied on “illegal” employees.

De Brink in Deventer with in the background the truck of Ten Have

Sadly on 17 October 1944 father Van Nieuwland died because of a heart-attack. To make things worse his son got buried under the debris of his own company building during an allied bombing on 15 December of that same year. So in a short time the DTC lost their business partner and a large part of the administration. And then, suddenly, like a lifesaver, there was C.G. Bloemink. In more quiet times he had been a tobacco-broker but when the war held up the trade he hired out himself as a civil servant and ended up in Deventer. At the end of 1944 he was an eye-witness when Harm’s ten Harmsen was bombed. One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity, this was the chance for Bloemink to work in the tobacco business again. On 17 January 1945 he was registered as a partner, got the title of managing director and became the face of the DTC. After the bombardment where Van Nieuwland died his mother passed on the company Harm’s ten Harmsen to one Frederik Koster. Bloemink took advantage of the opportunity to abruptly end the partnership and choose to work with the company Ten Have. The administration (what was left of it) moved to De Brink 32 in Deventer, beside his new partner.

Keurhorst

On 24 June 1946 it was noted in the Trade Register that Weverling and Keurhorst had left the DTC on 1 March of that year and that a new partnership was founded with C.G. Bloemink as its sole owner. The exact reason for their departure is not known. During the liberation of Diepenveen the greenhouses of the DTC with new tobacco plants meant for further processing and sale were destroyed, which was a big setback. Or perhaps they saw the end coming of inland grown tobacco now the war was ended. Keurhorst stayed being a horticulturist and tried (successfully) to develop better tobacco seeds and plants. Weverling got an offer to set up a plantation in Java which he gladly took, he had always longed back to the tropics.

DTC logo

Bloemink must have fought like a lion to keep the business running. Probably against his better judgement, because he was not a stupid man and the end of inland grown tobacco was easy to predict. Whether he liked it or not, our Dutch tobacco would always be of inferior quality as opposed to what America, Indonesia and other countries had to offer. In 1950 the location at De Brink was left and Bloemink made his office at home. In 1959 the Trade Register mentions a new address and name: Tabakscentrale. With that the Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale became history. The adventure began near Deventer and found its end in the city itself.

Alex Roosdorp

So why did you not wrote this story several years ago you lazy bastard! One could think.. Well, because the book also mentioned there was a film made during the war called “Toeback” in which the DTC played a large role. This movie about the growing of tobacco was made by Deventer photographer and film producer Alex Roosdorp. The filming began as a hobby but soon it became a full-time job for him and his wife Marie. Together they travelled across the country recording nature for commercial and educational purposes. It should be no surprise that Roosdorp, who liked to explore the nature around Deventer on bike, stopped at the tobacco plantation of Keurhorst. Probably the idea to make a film there was born at that occasion. The educational movie shows the growing and processing of tobacco and was premièred in November 1943. Sadly after the war the film got lost and forgotten.

Louis

But when Jan Jansen was doing his research he stumbled upon the original tapes of Toeback. It turned out to be a silent movie but in colour! Very rare for that time. With money from the Nederlandse Vereniging van de Sigarenindustrie, the Vereniging Nederlandse Kerftabakindustrie and the Stichting Sigaretten Industrie the film was restored by the EYE Film Institute, put on DVD and given to the Stichting Nederlandse Tabaks Historie, run by Louis Bracco Gartner. Now and then the DVD was shown upon request but that was it. When I heard about the existence of Toeback I thought that it would be awesome if it was available for anyone to see. Because it is an unique document for the Netherlands and perhaps for the world. So after some searching I found out Louis had the film, but he could not just rip the DVD and put it on internet. He had to ask permission from the EYE Film Institute. That process almost took 2 years and a lot of e-mails from my side (and probably also from Louis) but lo and behold, a short while ago I got a message from a happy Louis with the link of the movie! The EYE Film Institute had finally uploaded it on YouTube. So sit back, pour yourself a glass a good whisky, put on some relaxing music, light up a pipe and enjoy Toeback.

January 30, 2016

Pool’s tobacco, there is no better

Klaas and myself

One of my pipe tobacco mentors is my friend Klaas. I learned a lot from him, had my first experiences with GL Pease and Balkan Sobranie thanks to the good man. Klaas his nickname on the Dutch/Belgian pipe-smokers forum is Upper Ten. It is one of his favourite tobacco brands but sadly it’s no longer made. Fortunately Klaas had a far-sighted vision and stocked up on Upper Ten products, which he still enjoys to this day. Of course he gave me lots of samples of his “treasures” which triggered my interests. So I did some research and discovered Upper Ten originally was made in The Netherlands by Pool’s tobacco factory in the city of Hoorn.

The story starts on 1 March 1849 when Teunis Albertus Pool began his shop and tobacco factory at the Groote Noord 55 at the age of 23. Shortly before Teunis got married to Bertha Helena van der Linden and began his one-man company at a time when tobacco was still seen as a stimulant and was mostly sold separately. The property consisted of three floors. Downstairs was the shop where groceries, cigars and tobacco were sold. Above the shop was a small tobacco factory and housing. On 16 February 1850 daughter Alida was born. Soon afterwards, 1 May 1850, the tobacco company expanded with hiring an assistant, apprentice tobacco blender John Dros.

Sadly Bertha, the wife of Teunis, dies young on 17 May 1857 at the age of 33. 8 years after starting a family and starting a business Teunis Pool is a widower. Daughter Alida is just 7 years old. Setbacks like these certainly have influenced the development of the company. Soon on 25 March 1858 Teunis Pool remarried with Cornelia Christina Ohmstede in Alkmaar. This marriage remained childless and therefore there was no succession in the male line of the company. Which remained small, Pool stuck to one assistant and the clientèle was limited to Hoorn and the surrounding area. It mainly supplied to individuals. Despite its size Pool had the chance to build a trusted brand and the name “Pool’s tabak” became a household name over the years. When in 1891 Teunis Albertus Pool died his widow Cornelia Ohmstede took over business for a few years. In 1898 the company was taken over by Jacob Ruyter (17-8-1859) and the name “TA Pool” was maintained.

Jacob Ruyter

The first years after the takeover business did not really went smooth. With some experience as a representative of a cocoa factory in the Zaanstreek, Jacob Ruyter visited West Frisian villages to see if he could interest retailers for his products. The travels also took him through the cabbage fields of Broek op Langedijk. It is striking that 100 years later there are still people who can remember a phrase that refers to this period: “In the land of cabbage, one smokes tobacco from Pool” Possibly Jacob Ruyter had a good nose for marketing because the slogan “Pool’s tobacco, there is no better” also sounds pretty nice. Anyway, the tactic of travelling sales worked well, so in 1901 the company could begin to expand. In that year not only the property at the Groote Noord was renovated, but also the building behind it, Achterom 60. In 1918 an electric motor was purchased so the (then) cheap and convenient energy source electricity could be used.

Pointy tobacco bag

From a regional based business the company slowly grew with outlets in several towns and villages in the country. Besides the increase of the market the entry of some of Jacob Ruyter’s sons to the company was an important reason for the growth potential. Business was good and when in 1919 the building of Achterom 54 became available for sale it was purchased. From then Achterom 60, which until then was used for the complete processing of the tobacco, was only used for the cutting. The packing department went into the new property. The separated cutting and packing departments meant in practice that tobacco after the cutting had to be transported by road to the new premises to be weighed there and packed. Initially the tobacco boxes were brought by foot to the new building, later a cart was used. After weighing the tobacco was packaged in pointy paper bags or larger white packages with red lettering. However, weighing the tobacco for the pointy brown paper bags and filling them always remained handwork.

Nico Ruyter

The growth of the business made it necessary to store the tobacco stocks without using a nearby warehousing company. To achieve that a cheese store on the Nieuwendam was bought in 1923. After a major renovation the building was brought into use as a tobacco warehouse. From that moment thousands of tobacco bales came from Kentucky, Virginia, Java, Sumatra and Cuba and were stored at the warehouse. The crisis years beginning in 1929 did not seem to pose an obstacle for Pool to grow. On 20 March 1931 the company was converted into a N.V. and a management change was simultaneously implemented. The already old Jacob Ruyter became a supervisory director while sons Peter and Nico together formed the management. The company continued to grow and halfway the 1930’s the biggest renovation in the history of Pool was done.

Pool warehouse

With this major renovation, starting in 1935, the two buildings Achterom 48 and 50 were added to the company. Along with the other premises a contiguous set of four buildings arose at the Achterom together with a striking new air-bridge. The company, which was previously divided into two parts, was made one now. So the the troubles of transporting the semi-finished products from one building to another was not longer necessary. This was not only a huge time saver, but also the special permit to transport non-taxed tobacco across the streets was not longer needed. Also the tobacco stayed in the constant temperature of the factory. Mid-March 1941 a permit was requested and granted to convert the shop into office space. The store, a remainder of the business as it was founded in 1849, has been made redundant by the development of the company. The year 1941 was in other ways a turbulent year for the company. Nico Ruyter died and from that moment Peter Ruyter became the sole director and responsible for the continued management of the firm.

Cigarettes made from amateur tobacco

Unfortunately WWII meant a difficult period for the company and many other businesses and industries. The supply of foreign tobacco stopped and to fairly share the limited tobacco stocks ration stamps were introduced in 1942. To be able to still produce and survive the Dutch tobacco industry started with processing home-grown tobacco. Traditionally in Amerongen and the surrounding region tobacco was cultivated (see my “Dutch tobacco cultivation (no, not weed…)” blogpost) and also Pool was for a part dependent on the production from this area. Additionally home-grown tobacco was used, which was mostly grown by amateurs on small plots of land. After WWII it took some years for the domestic production and imports of foreign goods to come back to an acceptable level. Only after 1949 the import of foreign cigarettes and tobacco was fully up and running.

Pool’s shag

1 March 1949 was the official 100th anniversary of Pool firm. However, the supply of foreign tobacco still had not fully begun. Despite these remnants of the war the developments inside and outside the company went on as usual. After the war it soon became clear that there was a shift in sales in favour of the cigarette and rolling tobacco (shag). To produce shag a new cutting-machine was purchased. Shag requires a fine-cut and the old machines Pool had were designed for the production of pipe tobacco with its broader cut. To further increase production a new packaging machine was bought In the field of the daily management change was also necessary. The succession in the line of the Ruyter family was ensured by the appointment of Jacob Ruyter jr., son of Piet Ruyter, as director.

Factory at the Achterom

For Pool a transition to the production of cigarettes on the Achterom location was impossible. Cigarette machines and the related packaging lines were expensive and large. Besides, the buildings were too small to store all the equipment. Expansion in the down-town area was not possible and a relocation of the company so soon after the war was not only too expensive but also very risky. Before the war it was still possible to exist of the sales of mainly pipe tobacco. After the war they tried a switch to the production of shag tobacco. But the competition was fierce and also there had to be searched for new, larger sales opportunities.

Upper Ten tin

And new opportunities were found in the early 1950’s. There was a possibility to start a partnership with a representative of tobacco products who was also the owner of the Upper Ten brand. Until then the Upper Ten brand was only a registered trademark without product. But with the new cooperation Pool became the producer of the new brand. The existing contacts were used by the representative to introduce the Upper Ten products in the Netherlands. With Upper Ten Pool returned to the production of pipe tobacco. In the end the brand sold well and was available throughout the Netherlands. Upper Ten was packaged in laminated packaging and the pouches we know. Later the tobacco was even packed in luxury vacuum-drawn cans and tins. Because of the representation and marketing of Upper Ten in the Netherlands, the tobacco factory became the producer of just one item and there was no longer need for an office in an expensive location as the Grote Noord. So in 1964 the office and underlying housing were sold. The Pool administration moved in its entirety to Nieuwsteeg 5, a location which already had been used as office space for the firm.

The competition

Many companies suffered from the fierce competition from the increasing mass production. Large and strong companies like Niemeyer and Van Nelle determine the prices of cocoa, coffee, tea and tobacco through their control of the import markets. From the 1960’s growing bigger was one of the few ways to keep the heads above water for many companies. Also a lot of them believed they could save their businesses by letting themselves being bought up by or merge with a larger parent company. Many of the smaller tobacco businesses simply vanished into thin air. The Pool company was able to maintain itself as a medium-sized tobacco manufacturer by producing and selling Upper Ten tobacco throughout the Netherlands.

In 1978 there was a big problem when the brand owner and national representative of Upper Ten withdrew from the firm. A solution was found by buying the trademark rights of the Upper Ten brand and to enter into a partnership with an importer of pipes and smoking supplies. This company, Vasteman, was an importer of quality pipes with its own exclusive retail outlets in the Netherlands. A production hall was purchased besides the business of Vasteman and from there the production of Pool’s product Upper Ten was started up again. Unfortunately this latest rescue attempt failed. The collaboration with the pipes and smoking accessories business did not go as expected. Commitments were not met and therefore the curtain fell for the company on 1 July 1980. Despite this the registration of the name “B.V. Tabaksfabriek de Pool” was still maintained for some years in the trade register (for a short time it was a tobacco mail order company) until it was finally removed on 15 October 1988. The name “Pool”, attached to the tobacco industry in Hoorn, existed for about 140 years. Pool’s tobacco, there was no better. However, the Upper Ten brand lived on for some years. But more about that and about the Upper Ten products in a later blogpost.

I want to thank the Vereniging Oud Hoorn and Tabakshistorie.nl for the info and pictures.

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October 11, 2014

Vintage Dunhill tobacco made in… Germany!?

A while ago I was surfing on the German ebay, looking for some goodies. There I stumbled upon a couple of vintage Dunhill tobacco tins, one Standard Mixture Medium and one London Mixture. Unfortunately the description said that both tins were opened yet full. I figured that I could probably re-hydrate the tobaccos and since the price was right I decided to take the risk and bought both tins. When I received and opened the package I saw to my utter delight that the London Mixture tin was still sealed. Yesss! Without much thinking I happily put both acquisitions in my tobacco-closet.

Freunde Der Tabakpfeife forum

Some months ago I was going through my vintage tobacco stash, looking for something I can’t remember, when I saw the old London Mixture tin again. I took a better look at it and suddenly my eye fell upon a sentence at the downside: Hergestellt In Deutschland. What!? Made in Germany!!?? I always believed vintage Dunhill tobaccos were made in the UK, first by Dunhill themselves and later in 1981 by Murray (and from 2005 until now by Orlik in Denmark). As you can imagine my curiosity was awakened. So I started asking around on international pipe fora. On the PipesMagazine.com forum I did not get much further despite friendly reactions. Kind of logical because that is more American-orientated. Then fellow Dutch pipe smoker Huub came to the rescue: “Arno, I am a member of a German forum, Freunde Der Tabakpfeife, I shall try to gather some information there.” And lo and behold, in no time Huub could tell me several people reacted to my question of the origins of the London Mixture tin. I also became a forum-member there and looked into the thread Huub had started for me.

Advertisement of German made Dunhill tobaccos

There I found a lot of information and several leads. It turned out that my tin was made under license of Dunhill by German tobacco company Von Eicken who also produced other Dunhill offerings at the time. I barely could believe this and as proof an old advertisement for German made Dunhill tobaccos was uploaded on the FDT forum. In a book about old companies from Hamburg I read more about Von Eicken.

The old Von Eicken factory in Hamburg

As early as 1770 Johann Wilhelm von Eicken began trading with colonial countries and produced his pipe and snuff tobacco in Mülheim. In 1866 Carl Heinrich von Eicken took over the management of the company. He discontinued trading with the colonial countries and presses ahead with the production of tobacco products. Another tobacco factory in Hamburg was purchased in 1886. The Hamburg factory was not spared in WWII, it was partly destroyed during air raids in 1943. The plant in Mülheim was completely destroyed during air raids by the US Air Force. Shortly before the end of the war the closure of the factory in Hamburg was ordered by the Nazis in 1944. The building was required for the production of X-ray machines.. Old and sick Hans von Eicken handed over the company to his son Wilhelm just a few months before the war ended.

Official permission to resume manufacturing tobacco was granted in 1949. US Virginia tobacco, essential for production, was available in late autumn of the same year because of the Marshall Plan (93,000 tons of tobacco were shipped free of charge to Germany!). In 1963 Von Eicken was granted the exclusive import and distribution rights for Mac Baren tobacco in Germany and distributed this successfully until 2008. In 1983 the decision was made to relocate the factory to Lübeck. Marc von Eicken was the 8th generation to join the company in 1997. Since then he is running Von Eicken together with his father Johann Wilhelm.

The most interesting thing I read in the book (and saw on the FDT forum) by far was that Von Eicken already made contact with Dunhill in 1926, permission to produce tobaccos in license was granted in 1938. 1938… With a shock I realized that Adolf Hitler reigned over Nazi-Germany in that year. So one of the quintessential British companies gave a tobacco license to a company in Nazi-Germany?? Yes, but it is not as black and white as you read it. In 1938 most Western countries had adopted an optimistic view about what Winston Churchill later called “the gathering storm of war in Europe”. I mean, a policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler was initiated in Great Britain by Lord Halifax and US president Roosevelt had signed the US Neutrality Acts. The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, met Hitler in his Munich flat. Later that day he flew home and waved the joint declaration of peaceful intent, which they both signed. He also remarked that “all this will be over in 3 months” and “I believe it is peace for our time”.

Alfred Dunhill jr. sells pipes in the ruins of the bombed store

For Dunhill 1938 was a year of consolidation. A royal warrant from the freshly crowned King George VI was received and agencies were appointed for countries around the world. The main agent for Dunhill in London, the firm Abel & Imray, attempted through a local attorney to register the names “Dunhill”, “Rich Dark Virginia”, “Standard Mixture” and “My Mixture” in Germany. Sadly the firm was informed by the German authorities that it could not use its chosen representative because he had been “disbarred from practice” for being Jewish. I guess Von Eicken fitted the bill better. Alas, in the end Hitler’s play for more time (so he could complete his weaponry) was successful. On 3 September 1939 Great Britain and France declared war on Germany and in 1941 the Dunhill store was bombed..

Herr Johann Wilhelm Von Eicken

Despite the knowledge at the FDT forum and things I read I still had some questions. So I boldly decided to mail Von Eicken themselves in the hope to verify and gain some information. And lo and behold, a couple of days later I got a mail back from the older director, Herr Johan Wilhelm Von Eicken. His answers were very short, sometimes I did not know what he precisely meant but anyway, I was thankful. Below are the questions I had and the answers to the best of my abilities.

Nazi anti-smoking poster

Why did Dunhill give a license to produce their tobaccos to Von Eicken?
The answer is pretty simple: economical reasons. In 1929 Dresden internist Fritz Lickint presented statistical evidence through a published case-series study which linked lung cancer and tobacco usage. So the Nazis began one of the first public anti-smoking campaigns in modern history. Hence the term “anti-smoking Nazis”.. A motivating factor was Adolf Hitler’s personal distaste for tobacco. Despite the fact that he was a heavy smoker in his early life. He used to smoke 25 to 40 cigarettes daily but gave up the habit, saying that it was “a waste of money”. Another motivation behind the Nazi campaign against smoking were their reproductive policies. The campaign included banning smoking in trams, buses and city trains, promoting health education, limiting cigarette rations in the Wehrmacht, organizing medical lectures for soldiers and raising the tobacco tax. So to get their tobaccos to the German consumer Dunhill first had to import their tobacco into Germany and pay import-duties. And on top of that the increased tobacco-tax made their offerings even more expensive. But with the tobacco made in Germany they avoided the import duties, enter Von Eicken. After the war the Deutsche Mark had little value as opposed to the British Pound thus everything coming from Great Britain was expensive. So once again The Von Eicken factory came in handy for Dunhill.

Original Dunhill London Mixture tin

Did Von Eicken use the same recipes as the original London made ones?
Herr Von Eicken wrote that their Dunhill tobaccos were a close copy to the original. But according to some members the German Dunhill offerings were, uhm, not so good. FDT member Uli says: “As a student I started smoking in 1959. Soon my favourite tobacco became Dunhill Standard Mixture and it was (amongst other Dunhill offerings) made in Germany. One time in Switzerland I bought myself an original Dunhill tin, the difference was striking! After that I never bought a German made Dunhill tobacco.” German friend and walking pipe-smoking encyclopaedia Rainer confirmed this. He told me that an old pipe smoking friend of him said that the German made London Mixture was awful compared to the original.. Great, I thought, I apparently bought a tobacco tin that can rival with the dreaded Clan (by Theodorus Niemeijer)…

To be very clear, this is a fake tin

Did Von Eicken kept producing Dunhill tobacco in Nazi Germany until 1943, when their factories were bombed by the allied forces?
According to Herr Von Eicken there was no leaf tobacco available in the war, so, no. Tobacco rationing was imposed in the beginning of the war and almost 70% of the available smoky leaf was diverted to the armed forces for the remainder of WWII. Also I can’t imagine that such a luxury product as Dunhill tobacco was bought by the struggling German population. But one has to admit, it is a tantalizing thought that perhaps some tins were made at the end of 1938 and beginning of 1939. That would really be a kind of sinister holy grail of Dunhill tobacco.

When did Von Eicken stop producing Dunhill tobacco in license?
Once again I had to lean on Rainer because I did not understand the answer of Herr Von Eicken.. According to Rainer sometime before 1976 when he started to buy pipe tobacco the original Dunhill tobaccos became available in Germany and Von Eicken ceased their production. Perhaps Dunhill noticed that a lot of German pipe-smokers bought their tobaccos abroad.. Who knows.. One thing is sure, when Murray took over Dunhill production Von Eicken no longer made their version.

Back to the tin of German London Mixture I bought. You can see a George VI crest with a reference to the “late King”. So according to John Loring this tin was made between 1954 and 1962. Personally I believe it is closer to 1962 than to 1954 because of the price you see on the tax-seal, DM 7,50. This because Rainer says that halfway the 1970’s such a tin costed around DM 8,00. But still, in the “worst case scenario” my tin is 52 years old, yiehaaa!!!

Of course I had to open the tin. Rainer constantly kept semi-seriously nagging me to “write the blog and afterwards sell the sealed tin for a huge sum” but that is not me. So on one of the last summer days I cracked the still intact vacuum seal. On top of the tobacco was a paper insert placed with the text “This tobacco is packed freshly cut. Many smokers find that tobacco smokes cooler when quite dry. In such cases it is advisable to have the tin open for a while.”

With the paper insert removed the tobacco looked just fine in my eyes. No mould or anything like that, just mostly dark coloured ribbon cut strands with some lighter ones. Despite that the vacuum seal had been intact the contents were a little bit on the dry side but still perfectly smokeable. The smell of the tobacco inside was a bit strange. I noticed that the strength of the latakia had diminished and what was left is best described as a McClelland latakia tobacco with instead of the ketchup odour a bit of a sweet liquorice smell with a rotten edge. The original Dunhill tobaccos were (in)famous for their “rotten” smell so probably Von Eicken tried to mimic this.

I filled a 1962 Root Briar Dunhill prince with the German London Mixture and set fire to the old tobacco. I was aware that people said that the German version was awful compared to the original but all by all I had a decent smoke. Nothing spectacular but just.. Decent.. I had no old original London Mixture tin so comparing it was difficult. Only thing I had was a tin of the Murray version, so in the next days I also smoked that one. In the afternoon the Murray version, in the evening the Von Eicken one. Of course the Murray tobacco was fresher, the latakia more present and pungent. But when I adjusted the taste in my mind I found some similarities. The original description for London Mixture read: “A delightfully harmonious blend of matured Virginia and Oriental tobaccos, soft and mellow, cool and fragrant.” Mr Pease said about the original: “It had a richness, a sophisticated elegance, and a complex nature that kept it from being tiring. It was full enough to satisfy, but never overbearing. It was comfort food for the pipe.” I could find myself in these descriptions. Both blends were very harmonious, one good taste throughout the bowl without a roller-coaster ride of different flavours, comfort food. The Murray version had a certain richness and was soft and mellow. On the other hand The Von Eicken blend bit me sometimes and lacked the complex nature.

All by all it was a fascinating experience smoking the German made London Mixture. Especially with the story behind it. I would like to thank Huub, Rainer, the folks at the FDT forum and Herr Von Eicken for their help and input.

April 21, 2013

The lucky bastard ;)

Shaun (forum nickname: Nekker)

Fellow Dutch/Belgian pipe-smoker forum member and friend Shaun is a lucky bastard. Besides having a drop dead gorgeous girlfriend and a model for a sister, the favour of the almighty pipe-smoking God also shines upon him.

Yesterday he was walking with his mother over a flea market in the Belgium city of Leuven, where he lives. Shaun likes to do that because he is always on the search for estate pipes. At a stand he saw 2 unsmoked pipes. Hmm.. Probably Bruyere Garantie, he thought. Until he saw the famous white dot on both pipes. No no no, this is not possible, raced through his mind. He turned over the pipes and read: Dunhill Shell Briar Made in England. *Gasp!!!*

The vendor already saw Shaun looking at the pipes and shouted: “5 euro a piece but because today the sun shines you can have them for 7 euro if you take them both!” Being a bit re-educated by us cheap Dutchmen Shaun managed to close the deal for 6 euro for both pipes! The only thing was, the stem of one of the Dunhills was broken. But nothing an expert craftsman couldn’t fix.

The two estate Dunhills Shaun bought

Enthusiastic Shaun told the story on the forum. But being a Dunhill lover I wanted to know how old the pipes were and asked for some pictures of the downsides and information. Soon I got just that. He posted pictures from the pipes and when I saw them my eyes went wide and my mouth fell open. Both stamps read: Dunhill Shell Briar Made in England Patent No. 417574/34. He actually bought two unsmoked Dunhill patent era pipes for 6 euro! I did some quick research, looked a bit better and discovered that the intact one came from 1948 and the broken one from 1942! A war pipe! Pretty rare!

Alfred Henry Dunhill. sells pipes in the ruins of the bombed store

In 1941 during the London Blitz in WWII Alfred Dunhill’s store, and many other in the surrounding area, was bombed and destroyed. A popular tale tells that when that happened, Dunhill employees called Sir Winston Churchill at four o’ clock in the night. This to assure him his private collection of cigars (which were kept in the store’s humidor) had already been relocated to safety. And with that attitude Dunhill continued to sell pipes from the debris and ruins of the store.

But that was not easy.. During the war briar and vulcanite for the stems were very hard to get. The whole Mediterranean region was swept up in conflict so the Algerian briar (which was used for Dunhill’s Shell Briar pipes) was difficult to get a hand on. The same went for the Italian briar that Dunhill used for the smooth-finished pipes. Vulcanite was either rationed or prohibited. Because of this Dunhill fitted most pipes from this decade with stems made of horn. Of course when vulcanite became more available they could be replaced.

The old Dunhill store on Duke street

During WWII the UK gave permission to make smoking pipes to only six firms. Dunhill was one of them. Briar was divided equally between the six firms. But… Not all of it was of high quality. The rationing plan of the government encouraged the making of so called “utility pipes”. This were low-cost pipes that could be made from poor quality briar. The internal management of Dunhill reported that only about a quarter of the equally divided briar supply was good enough for high-quality pipes. Auwtsch.. That really hindered the export of Dunhill pipes for years to come. It wasn’t until the early 1950s, when the reconstruction of the UK was really on its way, that Dunhill was able to expand once more at home and abroad.

I hope that Shaun can get that pretty unique pipe fixed so he can smoke it with a lot of pleasure until the end of his days.

Dutch Pipe Smoker

Tag Archives: WWII

The tale of the “Diepenveensche Tabak Centrale”

Pool’s tobacco, there is no better

Vintage Dunhill tobacco made in… Germany!?

The lucky bastard ;)