Codger_64
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- Oct 8, 2004
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Prince Albert (1819-1861), the youngest son of an impoverished German duke, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg (Bavaria, Germany)... AKA Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanue was the husband and Prince Consort of England's Queen Victoria (They were first cousins). After much international fencing and footwork they wed in 1840. After his death, Queen Victoria mourned his passing the rest of her life always wearing black.
He was also the namesake of a brand of smoking tobacco introduced by R. J. Reynolds circa 1905. For many years it was a top selling brand of crimp cut pipe and cigarette tobacco.
Over the years a quaint mystery surfaced regarding a set of promotion knives made by Ulster for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company with Old Timer tang stamps and shields. Records from the tobacco company regarding the old promotion were “canned” when Reynolds sold their interests. Reynolds Tobacco USA sold its Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Apple and Royal Comfort smoking tobacco brands to John Middleton Inc. on April 2, 1987. There was no help from that quarter. All that remained was the tobacco tins and the few inside wrappers involved in the offer. Dennis Ellingsen wrote a nice illustrated piece on sleuthing the knives back in 2002 for the Oregon Knife Collector’s Newsletter. Along with photos of the tin and knives, he included some information gleaned from the historian at Imperial Schrade, and his best guess for the offer dates and patterns based upon the information available at that time was 1964-1966.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/PrinceAlbert.pdf
In 2006, Larry Vickery took up the torch and, using newly available records and a lot of tenacity, refined both the pattern identifications and the Reynolds Prince Albert offer dates. 1968-1974, the 114 OT-Reynolds, the 10 OT-Reynolds and the 58 OT-Reynolds. This was two years beyond the offer expiration date of December 31, 1972.
More discussions and collector input revealed that not only did R. J. Reynolds offer the three Old Timers with their Prince Albert tobacco tins, but the “Whittler” pattern, the 58OT Ulster, was also offered on matchbooks for Camel Cigarettes.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/Ulster.pdf
And now I’ve finally been able to acquire the set of three knives and the Prince Albert tin with insert offer for display in my own collection.
But... as fate would have it, I noticed that there was more than one design of the tin bearing the offer.
The first tin, the one I acquired first, is plain on the front, no different than the regular non-offer tins, but with the Ulster knife offer on the back.
The second tin has the same artwork on the back but a yellow “burst” banner ad was placed on the front drawing attention to the offer.
And yet a third tin has the same front “burst”, but the artwork on the rear changed to include an offer of an Imperial knife for $1 in addition to the three Ulster Old Timers.
Now... to I.D. the Imperial knife!
Codger
He was also the namesake of a brand of smoking tobacco introduced by R. J. Reynolds circa 1905. For many years it was a top selling brand of crimp cut pipe and cigarette tobacco.
Over the years a quaint mystery surfaced regarding a set of promotion knives made by Ulster for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company with Old Timer tang stamps and shields. Records from the tobacco company regarding the old promotion were “canned” when Reynolds sold their interests. Reynolds Tobacco USA sold its Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Apple and Royal Comfort smoking tobacco brands to John Middleton Inc. on April 2, 1987. There was no help from that quarter. All that remained was the tobacco tins and the few inside wrappers involved in the offer. Dennis Ellingsen wrote a nice illustrated piece on sleuthing the knives back in 2002 for the Oregon Knife Collector’s Newsletter. Along with photos of the tin and knives, he included some information gleaned from the historian at Imperial Schrade, and his best guess for the offer dates and patterns based upon the information available at that time was 1964-1966.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/PrinceAlbert.pdf
In 2006, Larry Vickery took up the torch and, using newly available records and a lot of tenacity, refined both the pattern identifications and the Reynolds Prince Albert offer dates. 1968-1974, the 114 OT-Reynolds, the 10 OT-Reynolds and the 58 OT-Reynolds. This was two years beyond the offer expiration date of December 31, 1972.
More discussions and collector input revealed that not only did R. J. Reynolds offer the three Old Timers with their Prince Albert tobacco tins, but the “Whittler” pattern, the 58OT Ulster, was also offered on matchbooks for Camel Cigarettes.
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/Ulster.pdf
And now I’ve finally been able to acquire the set of three knives and the Prince Albert tin with insert offer for display in my own collection.
But... as fate would have it, I noticed that there was more than one design of the tin bearing the offer.
The first tin, the one I acquired first, is plain on the front, no different than the regular non-offer tins, but with the Ulster knife offer on the back.
The second tin has the same artwork on the back but a yellow “burst” banner ad was placed on the front drawing attention to the offer.
And yet a third tin has the same front “burst”, but the artwork on the rear changed to include an offer of an Imperial knife for $1 in addition to the three Ulster Old Timers.
Now... to I.D. the Imperial knife!
Codger
)
:thumbup: :thumbup: 
