The sad decline of pipe tobacco merchandising.

I love old tin art. I’ve concluded lately that the older a tin is, the more likely I am to like its art. Maybe it’s some nostalgic yearning for better times, or maybe it’s that I appreciate that pipe tobacco manufacturers and blenders of old took obvious pride in how their blends were packaged and presented. It shows up in those grand old tins and logos.

Why is it, as time passes, that tin art worsens and worsens? Take for example the minimalistically elegant tin designs of Marcovitch? To me, the cutter top was a better tin design than its later coin-twist version. Still, we wouldn’t see this kind of brand consistency across decades now, let alone the maintenance of production values.

The imaginative and winning Baby’s Bottom tin.For those who would reflexively tell me how expensive packaging is and how it is a waste, I would love to have that debate. The cost of packaging in the good old days was cosiderably higher proportionately than it is now. Nope. I don’t agree.

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