Ceramic tobacco jars

Unlike tobacco boxes, which were portable, tobacco jars were designed to sit on a shelf or in a cupboard and was therefore included more decoration and a greater variety of shapes than the tobacco box. They were mostly made of ceramic, glass or silver although earlier examples are of lead or pewter. Some had an interior weight to keep the tobacco compressed. Early seventeenth-century examples are cylindrical, often with a domed lid with a finial. Eighteenth-century tobacco jars were often in wood, especially lignum vitae, elegantly shaped, frequently with a liner of pottery or tin. Many of the well-known ceramics factories made tobacco jars. They were a popular item for Royal Doulton, and Wedgwood made very attractive examples in black basalt and blue jasper.