The Snuff Tobacco Reference

The Dean Swift Snuff Company

The Dean Swift snuff tobacco brand was conceptualised no later than 1960 by a Wade Hampton Poole of California,1 though it would not be until several years later that the Dean Swift company began operating in earnest.2

In short order the Dean Swift brand was memorialized by renowned author Phillip K. Dick in works including the 1966 novella We Can Remember It for You Wholesale3 and the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?4

The early 1970s saw a modest newspaper advertising campaign for the brand, including a promotion for free samples of snuff tobacco.5

In 1984, George Bensen & Son were appointed as national distributors in the United States of America for the Dean Swift range of products,6 which at this time comprised twenty-two varieties of snuff tobacco that were contract manufactured by the Illingworth company of Kendal, England.7

Snuff tobacco production for Dean Swift had moved to Sheffield, England by 1989,8 and an Allene Brewer, who was a former sales manager for Dean Swift,9 had by 1991 come to own the company.10

In 2004, Arango Cigar Co. became the sole importer and distributor of Dean Swift snuff tobacco products in the United States of America,11 and a decade later in 2014 the Dean Swift trademark having previously expired was registered by Arangold Corporation, another tobacco distribution company.12 Since this time, Dean Swift snuff tobacco has been contract manufactured variously by Wilsons & Co. (Sharrow) Ltd.11 and McChrystal’s (Leicester) Ltd.13

Citations

  1. Trade mark 72,093,240. United States Patent Office. 1960.
  2. Tobacco Retailers’ Almanac. Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, Inc. Edition 52; Issue 1988; Page 123. 1988. Digitised version
  3. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. Philip Kindred Dick. Page 35. 1966.
  4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Philip Kindred Dick. Pages 41; 99; 262. 1968.
  5. The Lawrentian. Volume 42; Number 10; Issue 1974-01-11; Page 7. 1974. Digitised version
  6. United States Tobacco and Candy Journal. Bensen to market Dean Swift snuff. Volume 212; Number 8; Issue 1984-06-14–07-04; Page 29. 1984. Digitised version
  7. Tobacco. Tea Bag Snuff. Sonia Roberts. Issue 1984-05; Pages 11–13. 1984. Digitised version
  8. Special Report. Tobacco Merchants Association of the U.S., Inc. Special Report 89-1; Issue 1989-03-17; Page 9. 1989. Digitised version
  9. Wholesale Tobacco Distributors Trade Directory. Issue 1980/1981; Page 79. Digitised version
  10. Trade Directory; Annual Meeting Journal. New York State Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors, Inc. Issue 1991; Page 224. 1991. Digitised version
  11. Tobacco Outlet Business. Arango Reintroduces Dry Snuff Lines. Issue 2012-09/10; Page 82. Digital version
  12. Trade mark 86,283,347. United States Patent Office. 2014.
  13. Smokeshop. Dean Swift’s Dr. Rumney Nasal Snuff is Back at Arango Cigar Co. Volume 47; Number 2; Issue 2020-04; Page 42. 2020. Digital version