Dunhill Tobacco Tins: Packaging and Dating

Dunhill tobacco tins are considered one of the sturdiest foundations for dating in English pipe-tobacco collecting. Even though a blend's name stayed the same for decades, the size of the tin, the shape of the lid, the base stamp, and the royal-warrant wording on the label were renewed at set intervals; the period of a tin is largely established by reading these four details together.

The first study to lay out the criteria in an organized way is John C. Loring's 1997 review. For the history of the blends themselves, see Dunhill Pipe Tobaccos: 1907-1990.

The Shape and Size of the Tin

Records indicate the earliest tins were not vacuum-sealed; a photograph dated to 1909 shows half-pound and one-pound tins under two closely related "My Mixture" labels. During the First World War, the switch was made to the knife-lid (cutter-top) tin. The distinguishing feature of this design is its double lid: a thin metal inner lid seals the tobacco airtight, and the outer lid that fits over the body has a small sliding knife at its edge for cutting the seal. Once the seal is cut, the outer lid serves only as a cover. This arrangement, well suited to long-term storage and overseas shipping, is credited with playing a part in the brand's spread. The most common size was four ounces; eight- and two-ounce tins were also made, with pressed flake blends usually going into the two-ounce size.

In the examples Loring studied, the four-ounce tin from the 1920s through the 1950s measures roughly four inches in diameter and two inches in height; a few blends used a narrower, taller tin. At the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s the metal thinned, the diameter dropped to 3.75 inches, and the outer lid took on a bright gold colour with a pronounced curl at its lower edge. Somewhere in the mid-to-late 1960s, the packaging changed fundamentally: the paper-labelled knife-lid tin was replaced by a painted, coin-twist-capped tin. The transition was gradual; the 1968/69 wholesale catalogue lists the two types side by side.