I haven't seen very many complete smoker's (also spelled smokers or smokers') sets. The one below, which is featured on pages 316 and 317 in
R&R Halliday's "Extraordinary British Transferware 1780-1840," appears to have all of its parts. I am not sure what "all of its parts" actually means. Here is a guess. Smoker's sets usually have a tobacco jar, a cup, a candlestick, a tobacco press, a snuff box, a snuff box lid, and a stand (which can be used as a ash tray).
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| Smoker's set, 13 inches high, printed in a pattern known as Hawk Attack, ca. 1820. |
Coysh and Henrywood on p. 340 in their 1982 book
"The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880," say a smoker's set "is a set of pots which fit together in the form of a pyramid and serve a variety of smoker's needs." "Variety" may be the key word.
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| The parts of the smoker's set are from top left counter clock-wise): a goblet, tobacco press and snuff box, lid to snuff box, ash tray, candlestick, tobacco jar, and dish (which also functions as a stand or ashtray or spittoon?). I assume the goblet or cup was used for wine. |
I recently saw a splendid smoker's set in the stall of
Fergus Downey in Portobello Road.
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| Smoker's set, 19 inches high, printed in the "British Cattle" pattern by, possibly, Bourne, Baker, and Bourne (ca. 1805-1830). |
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| The parts of the smoker's set are from left: a stand, inkwell and sander that fit inside the bottom container and a tobacco press, snuff box and lid that fit inside the second container, which may be the tobacco box. Next may be a spittoon, a two-handled wine cup, and a candlestick. You can see I'm not sure what is what! |
While most of the smoker's sets were probably printed in blue, I owned a set that was printed in teal. The Romantic pattern dates the set to the mid to late 1830s. It is missing some of its parts, but does include a candle snuffer.
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| Smoker's set, printed in teal, ca. 1835. |
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| The parts of this smoker's set include from the far left (clock-wise): a tobacco press with a built-in snuff box, tobacco jar, cup and candle stick (as one item), candle snuffer, and the lid of the snuff box. There were probably more parts at one time. |
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The last smoker's set I'll show you is lacking nearly everything. It only has the tobacco jar and the stand. I bought it because of the lovely floral pattern printed in pink and black. I envisioned using it as a plant pot. Which is exactly what I did.
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| Pink and black printed partial smoker's set: tobacco jar and stand only, ca. 1835. |
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| The beautifully printed stand. The orange dots are detritus from my garden. |
I hope you'll send me photos of more smoker's sets! More information too.
