Rattray blended and retailed tobacco for a worldwide clientele from this small Scottish city, with former Prime Minister Harold Wilson as one of the famous names on a long list of customers.
In-house blends included some interesting and often humorous names such as ‘Rattray’s Brown Clunee Tobacco’, ‘Rattray’s Professional Mixture Medium’, ‘Rattray’s Accountants Mixture’, and most notably, ‘Rattray’s Hal O’ The Wynd A Pure Virginian Tobacco of a Most Unusual Share of Strength’.
Perth auction house Lindsay Burns is now selling The Rattray Collection on April 25-26.
The items on offer include a late 18th century/ early 19th century carved and painted pine tobacco advertising figure of a Highlander, modelled standing holding a basket hilted sword in his right hand, with feather plumed cap, on an ebonised octagonal plinth base, 2ft (60cm) high.
This lot estimated at £600-800 can be seen in situ on the mantelpiece in ‘The Sales Salon’ at the Rattray shop in an early 20th century sepia photograph.
Lindsay Burns is also offering The Studio Sale of John Murray Thomson on April 25-26.
Auctioneer Nick Burns says both collections are “fresh to market and from related family who have had the items passed down”.
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See antiquestradegazette.com/calendar for all the latest auction sales dates.
