Chapter 15 Part 2
TOBACCONISTS' SIGNS
The "Tobacco Roll," either alone or in various combinations, was one
of the commonest of early tobacconists' signs, and was in constant use
for a couple of centuries. It may still be occasionally seen at the
present time in the form of the "twist" with alternate brown or black
and yellow coils, which up to quite a recent date was a tolerably
frequent adornment of tobacconists' shops, but is now rare. This roll
represented what was called spun or twist tobacco. Dekker, in James
I's time, speaks of roll tobacco. The youngster who mimics the
stage-gallants in Jonson's "Cynthia's Revels" as described in Chapter
II (ante; page 31), says that he has "three sorts of tobacco in his
pocket," which probably means that it was customary to mix for smoking
purposes tobacco of the three usual kinds—roll (or pudding), leaf and
cane. One would have thought that a representation of the tobacco
plant itself would have been a more natural and comprehensive sign
than one particular preparation of the herb, yet representations of
the plant were rare, while those of the compressed tobacco known as
pudding or roll in the form of a "Tobacco Roll," as described above,
were very frequently used as signs.
From the examples given in Burn's "Descriptive Catalogue of London
Tokens" of the seventeenth century, it is clear that the "Tobacco
Roll" was a warm favourite. "Three Tobacco Rolls" was also used as a
sign. In 1732 there was a "Tobacco Roll" in Finch Lane, on the north
side of Cornhill, "over against the Swan and Rummer Tavern." In 1766,
Mrs. Flight, tobacconist, carried on her business at the "Tobacco
Roll. Next door but one to St. Christopher's Church, Threadneedle
Street."
The shop-bill of Richard Lee, who sold tobacco about 1730 "at Ye
Golden Tobacco Roll in Panton Street near Leicester Fields," is an
elaborate production. Hogarth in the earlier period of his career as
an engraver engraved many shop-bills, and this particular bill is
usually attributed to him, though the attribution has been disputed.
There is a copy of the bill in the British Museum, and in the
catalogue of the prints and drawings in the National Collection Mr.
Stephens thus describes it: "It is an oblong enclosing an oval, the
spandrels being occupied by leaves of the tobacco plant tied in
bundles; the above title (Richard Lee at Ye Golden Tobacco Roll in
Panton Street near Leicester Fields) is on a frame which encloses the
oval. Within the latter the design represents the interior of a room,
with ten gentlemen gathered near a round table on which is a bowl of
punch; several of the gentlemen are smoking tobacco in long pipes; one
of them stands up on our right and vomits; another, who is
intoxicated, lies on the floor by the side of a chair; a fire of wood
burns in the grate; on the wall hangs two pictures ... three men's
hats hang on pegs on the wall." Altogether this is an interesting and
suggestive design, but hardly in the taste likely to commend itself to
present day tradesmen.
A roll of tobacco, it may be noted, was a common form of payment to
the Fleet parsons for their scoundrelly services. Pennant, writing in
1791, describes how these men hung out their frequent signs of a male
and female hand conjoined, with the legend written below: "Marriages
performed within." Before his shop walked the parson—"a squalid,
profligate figure, clad in a tattered plaid nightgown, with a fiery
face, and ready to couple you for a dram of gin, or roll of tobacco."
Combinations of the roll in tobacconists' signs occur occasionally. In
1660 there was a "Tobacco Roll and Sugar Loaf" at Gray's Inn Gate,
Holborn. In 1659 James Barnes issued a farthing token from the "Sugar
Loaf and Three Tobacco Rolls" in the Poultry, London. The "Sugar Loaf"
was the principal grocer's sign, and so when it is found in
combination with the tobacco roll at this time it may reasonably be
assumed that the proprietor of the business was a grocer who was also
a tobacconist.
Before the end of the seventeenth century, however, the signs were
ceasing to have any necessary association with the trade carried on
under them, and tobacconists are found with shop-signs which had no
reference in any way to tobacco. For instance, to take a few examples
from the late Mr. Hilton Price's lists of "Signs of Old London" from
Cheapside and adjacent streets, in 1695 John Arundell, tobacconist,
was at the "White Horse," Wood Street; in the same year J. Mumford,
tobacconist, was at the "Faulcon," Laurence Lane; in 1699 Mr. Brutton,
tobacconist, was to be found at the "Three Crowns," under the Royal
Exchange; in 1702 Richard Bronas, tobacconist, was at the "Horse
Shoe," Bread Street; and in 1766 Mr. Hoppie, of the "Oil Jar: Old
Change, Watling Street End," advertised that he "sold a newly invented
phosphorus powder for lighting pipes quickly in about half a minute.
Ask for a Bottle of Thunder Powder."
Again, in Fleet Street, Mr. Townsend, tobacconist, traded in 1672 at
the "Three Golden Balls," near St. Dunstan's Church; while at the end
of Fetter Lane, a few years later, John Newland, tobacconist, was to
be found at the "King's Head."
Addison, in the twenty-eighth Spectator, April 2, 1711, took note of
the severance which had taken place between sign and trade, and of the
absurdity that the sign no longer had any significance. After
satirizing first, the monstrous conjunctions in signs of "Dog and
Gridiron," "Cat and Fiddle" and so forth; and next the absurd custom
by which young tradesmen, at their first starting in business, added
their own signs to those of the masters under whom they had served
their apprenticeship; the essayist goes on to say: "In the third
place I would enjoin every shop to make use of a sign which bears some
affinity to the wares in which it deals. What can be more inconsistent
than to see ... a tailor at the Lion? A cook should not live at the
Boot, nor a Shoe-maker at the Roasted Pig; and yet for want of this
regulation, I have seen a Goat set up before the door of a perfumer,
and the French King's Head at a sword-cutler's."
Notwithstanding the few examples given above, tobacconists, more than
most tradesmen, seem to have continued to use signs that had at least
some relevance to their trade. Abel Drugger was a "tobacco-man," i.e. a tobacco-seller in Ben Jonson's play of "The Alchemist," 1610,
so that it is not very surprising to find the name used occasionally
as a tobacconist's sign. Towards the end of the eighteenth century one
Peter Cockburn traded as a tobacconist at the sign of the "Abel
Drugger" in Fenchurch Street, and informed the public on the
advertising papers in which he wrapped up his tobacco for customers
that he had formerly been shopman at the Sir Roger de Coverley—a
notice which has preserved the name of another tobacconist's sign
borrowed from literature. Seventeenth—century London signs were the
"Three Tobacco Pipes," "Two Tobacco Pipes" crossed, and "Five Tobacco
Pipes." At Edinburgh in the eighteenth century there were tobacconists
who used two pipes crossed, a roll of tobacco and two leaves over two
crossed pipes, and a roll of tobacco and three leaves.
The older tobacconists were wont to assert, says Larwood, that the man
in the moon could enjoy his pipe, hence "the 'Man in the Moon' is
represented on some of the tobacconists' papers in the Banks
Collection puffing like a steam engine, and underneath the words,
'Who'll smoake with ye Man in ye Moone?'" The Dutch, as every one
knows, are great smokers, so a Dutchman has been a common figure on
tobacconists' signs. In the eighteenth century a common device was
three figures representing a Dutchman, a Scotchman and a sailor,
explained by the accompanying rhyme:
We three are engaged in one cause,
I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws!
Larwood says that a tobacconist in the Kingsland Road had the three
men on his sign, but with a different legend:
This Indian weed is good indeed,
Puff on, keep up the joke
'Tis the best, 'twill stand the test,
Either to chew or smoke.
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