Cope Bros & Company: From Tobacco Maker to Publisher

Cope Bros & Company was a tobacco manufacturer founded in Liverpool in 1848 by brothers Thomas and George Cope. What sets the firm apart in tobacco history is not its product range but its publishing: a company that produced both its promotional and its reading material in-house left behind a monthly magazine, pocket-sized booklets, large color lithograph cards, and cigarette cards. Researchers studying Victorian tobacco culture draw most heavily on this body of material today.

The Firm's Course

The factory moved into a former church building on Lord Nelson Street in 1853 and remained there for more than forty years. By the 1880s it employed close to two thousand people; women made up most of the workforce, and its working conditions were held up as exemplary in the press of the day. Thomas Cope died in 1884 and the company went public the following year, with George Cope becoming its first managing director. Among its pipe tobaccos, Bond of Union stands out, still traceable today in collecting records; the catalogue is also noted to have included names like Bristol Bird's Eye, Rifle Cake, and Golden Cloud, along with Cavendish-type blends. Its independent existence ended when it was taken over by Gallaher in 1952.