Jelling

Jelling is the name of a tobacco shop opened in 1919 in Newark, New Jersey, that operated for more than half a century. The shop did not produce pipes at its own bench; it mainly sold cigars, pipes, and pipe tobacco, and had its name stamped onto some of the pipes it sold. For this reason, Jelling is regarded not as a manufacturer but as one of the well-documented examples of the house brand tradition common in America.

The Shop's History

The business's founder is believed to be David Jelling, whose name appears as a signature in 1950s advertisements. Because trade directories and catalogs give only a few lines of information about the shop, most of its history has been pieced together from period documents such as matchbooks and advertisements, along with eyewitness accounts. The shop moved several times over the years; after the 1950s it settled at its Commerce Street address and remained there until it closed. Management passed, according to records, to Arthur Jelling — said to be the founder's son — in the late 1960s; the business closed in the mid-1970s.

Its clientele consisted largely of cigar enthusiasts from the law offices surrounding the shop. Havana cigars were openly sold up until 1959; after the Cuban Revolution the language in advertisements became vague, and it is unclear whether sales of these cigars continued. Cigarettes, meanwhile, never entered the shop's product line.