Page 63 - Sunday 13 June Advertising & Breweriana

306. MURATTI CIGARETTES VENDING CABINET. 44 x 21ins. A most spectacular and narrow bodied, glass fronted, shop counter cigarette dispensing cabinet. Comprises 8 slide-out drawers, with 8 metal hanging drop down knobs each end, enabling access to the
various named brand names in each glass fronted compartment. Impressive and shapely wooden top finial inset with powerful lettering and entwined company initials in gold set on a red
and black background. See additional images on easylive.
The Muratti company was founded in Constantinople by Greek tobacco trader Basil Muratoglu in 1821.
He moved the company to Western Europe in the 1880’s, after the Ottoman Empire monopolized
the tobacco industry, and in 1885 the company was established in Berlin, Germany, and 1887 in London.
In 1895, the firm built a large factory
at 54, Whitworth St, Manchester which became the centre of an enormous
world wide trade employing 500 people all producing hand made cigarettes. In 1907, they became a branch of the United Kingdom Tobacco Co, and in 1929 they were taken over by Godfrey Philips.
The English company ended up under Philip Morris International whilst the German brand was purchased by Martin Brinkmann in 1960, and now belongs to British American Tobacco. Over the years they produced a good many collectables from wonderful showcards to a range of colourful pictorial cigarette boxes.
At the top of the collecting eschelon tree are the early shop counter cabinets like this lot offered, few of which survive today.