Page 51 - Antique Advertising & Breweriana Auction Sunday 22 November

337. MURATTI CIGARETTES VENDING CABINET. 44 x 21ins.
A spectacular and very rare narrow bodied, glass fronted, shop counter cigarette dispensing cabinet comprising 8 slide out drawers, with metal hanging knobs each end, enabling access to the
various named brand names in each compartment. Impressive
and shapely wooden top finial inset with lettering and entwined company initials in red, gold and black.
moved the company to Western Europe in the 1880s, after the Ottoman Empire monopolized the tobacco industry, and in 1885 the company was established in Berlin, Germany, and in 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 collectors 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, few of which survive.
The Muratti company
was founded in Constantinople by Greek tobacco trader Basil Muratoglu, in 1821. He