Ye Olde Tobacco Box, Jar and Tin. Bygone Pipe Smoker's Accouterments: Difference between revisions

Ye Olde Tobacco Box, Jar and Tin. Bygone Pipe Smoker's Accouterments (view source)

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 [[File:TobaccoBox-21.JPG|thumb|center|600px|Courtesy, liveauctioneers.com]]
+Let me introduce this figural tobacco jar from the Martin Brothers Pottery, London, a company
+that manufactured bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles.
+The four brothers maintained the studio from 1873 to 1914. The Pottery manufactured a series
+of Wally Bird tobacco jars that do not represent an actual species—stylistically, they were
+considered grotesque owls or birds—that have a large, rather fierce-looking beak, massive feet
+and talons, and a quizzical look in their large eyes. Their heads lift off to reveal a cavity intended
+to store pipe tobacco.
+The Robert A. Ellison Jr. collection of 140 works of art was a record-breaking auction for Rago
+Arts, Lambertsville, New Jersey, in February 2023. In it were many Martin Brothers works
+including this salt-glazed stoneware and ebonized wood Wally Bird tobacco jar dated to 1895.
+The estimate was $45,000–$60,000. The final bid was an insanely-astounding $100,800! In
+, Phillips, New York, had sold a Martin bird tobacco jar modeled in the guise of Benjamin
+Disraeli for $190,000. That might have made sense considering who Disraeli was. But from what
+I know about tobacco jars, the Ellison bird will undoubtedly hold the record for many years as
+the priciest pipe-smoker’s accessory of all time!
+[[File:TobaccoBox-25.jpg|thumb|center|600px|Courtesy, collections.vam.ac.uk]]