The P. Lorillard Tobacco Company put out some beautiful advertising back in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s including this tin sign for their 49 Cut Plug Chewing Tobacco Brand. The illustration on the sign shows a gold miner, with his pick and mining pan nearby. The 49 Cut Plug name is clearly a reference to the famous 1849 California Gold Rush days. Tin tobacco related signs from this era are highly collected today, and are subsequently very valuable.
The Lorillard Company was a well known producer of many of the largest selling tobacco brands in the late 1800’s including Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, Satin, True, Splendid, Sensation and Max. Many of these brands sold for over 100 years but eventually were discontinued. Of course their Newport brand is still being sold today and is well known.
Lorillard also produced this same gold miner image on a small advertising trade card for their 49 Cut Plug brand. Even today, one can easily find many advertising trade cards still today with the various brands on them along with pictures of beautiful Victorian woman to help sell their products.
In the 1950’s the P. Lorillard Tobacco company moved their operations both Jersey City, NY and Richmond, VA to Greensboro, N.C. In 2014 the company was sold to Reynolds American, and the Lorillard company name was eliminated from use, leaving only memories of the company with their long history of advertising giveaways.