Dobie's Four Square 4 tin sampler (pre-1956 - 70+ years old)

This is pretty much one of a kind item. We've all seen (and likely drooled over) over the occasional 1960s era tin of Balkan Sobranie, the post-war London blended Dunhills, - original Cope's Escudo and even the occasional Dobie's Four Square blends from the post-Paisley era. The post Paisley Dobie's tins are rare enough- But I've never seen this before and not sure there are many individual Paisley era tins let alone such a sampler!

This is a very VERY rare sampler pack of four 1 oz tins of the most beloved of the original Dobie's Four Square blends - containing one each of the Original Mixture, the Mixture, the Matured Virginia and the Curlies. These tins are indeed from the original Dobie Greenhill Works factory in Paisley, Scotland ('made in Gt. Britain')

This treasure truly comes from another era- before Godfrey Phillips took over blending in 1956 and shut down the entire Paisley, Scotland operation and moved it to Denmark.

Note the James B Russell import stickers on the back of each tin- they are pre-Zip code (1962). I have tried to get dates narrowed down further to determine if this was from the WWII era but haven't had any luck with the family of the old timer from whom I purchased this 25+ years ago. They did narrow down that he had started smoking a pipe as early as 1937. So it' must be from the window between 1937 -& 1956- my guess is closer to the latter by the looks of the packaging/printing but cant be 100% sure- it's potentially from the 40s.

I had thought many many times about smoking these but its such a unique collector's piece I just couldn't bring myself to do so. That said, I have no frame of reference to how these ORIGINAL Scottish made blends compares to the Danish AC Peterson blends which I had smoked extensively in the late 90s until it's production stopped in 2001 (AC Peterson began production in the 1970s - and those 70s/80s tins themselves fetch a small fortune). The current production was revived by Standard tobacco around 2010 or so but cannot imagine there is much of a comparison.

As far as condition: the sampler cardboard sleeve itself has seen better days and there is some very minor pitting affecting some of the tin paint- tho no serious rust or deep pitting to be seen and the seals are all intact- there is some slight shake for each tin which is understandable for being 70+ years old. Again, all 4 are still sealed.

A recap of each blend- from what I've dug up online- again, I'm not sure how these compare to the AC Peterson Danish offerings of the 70s-90s, nor the new production.

Four Square Mixture
- a well balanced English mixture with sweet bright Virginias, modest amount of Cyprian latakia and robust burley in a ribbon cut.

Four Square Original Mixture
- a VA forward blend with a variety of oriental tobaccos added for complexity- considered an all day smoke in either ribbon or loose cut. described as "Mellow, sweet and slightly tangy'

Four Square Matured Virginia
- composed entirely of high quality flu-cured bright virginias presented in flake or broken flake form flavor profiled as sweet and creamy with a clean, bright character (I can ONLY imagine how this has aged)

Four Square Curlies
- Dobie's legendary VA/Perique coin cut discs - some old accounts assume there may be a bit of black cavendish included to mellow it out. this is without a doubt the rarest of the 4 tins- very very little information out there on the original Dobie's creation

I struggled setting a reserve for this- but I think it's rarity is second to none. Best of luck and I hope whomever wins this one of a kind auction enjoys each of these unique tobaccos!

This auction contains tobacco.  If you live in certain states, you will be unable to purchase this product.