Friday, April 8, 2011

MacDonald's Tobacco Tin of Buttons

I happened upon this great vintage cigarette tobacco tin the other day. It had an image of a lady with the MacDonald's brand reading "Gold Standard Export Cigarette Tobacco - Finest Virginia Leaf."


I've always loved old metal tins, especially now that so much of our packaging is made of lower quality plastics or cardboard. Vintage tins made in the past were often re-used rather than thrown away - My mom still keeps her little sewing kit in a vintage Quality Street candy tin with a beautiful image on the lid. This sounds silly, but even the sound of opening and closing a vintage tin is music to my ears.


When I opened up the lid on this tin, I realized that someone was using this tin to store goodies too. Inside was a collection of buttons, all carefully packaged by type and colour.


Although I don't know much about the company nor the tin itself, it appears it was made in Canada due to the note about "Montreal" on the side of the tin. This is a nice little piece that brought a comforting memory of a simple sewing kit to mind!

In hindsight however, this was a compulsive buy that I don't have much use for as I don't sew! If anyone is interested in trading with me, I'm open to ideas... my email is under the "About Me" tab!

6 comments:

  1. I am soooo with you on the vintage tins! My mom had a few of my great grandma's (I have one of them!), and every time I go to the thrift, I always look. I found a REALLY cool German one, and I ended up putting it back, because...how many tins can one have??! I do dumb things like this every now and then- and then regret it! Oh well, your tin is lovely! :)

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  2. I love tins too - this was a great find :o) Scarlett x

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  3. Very interesting piece of nostalgia! I know the 'opening tin' sound you're talking about :)

    Have you ever tried Etsy for reselling?

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  4. Two of my favorite things-- vintage tins & buttons! My grandmother kept all her old buttons in a tin and I used to love digging through it as a kid, I especially liked the ones that were bakelite or had rhinestones in the center.

    My tin collection had gotten a little out of control, I've pretty much stopped buying them now! Do you have any creative use ideas for them?

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  5. Yes, tins can definitely be tempting during my treasure hunting, but I think I prefer glass jars now that I think about it.

    Sandra, I haven't thought about Etsy too much although I think I need to look at selling a few of my items. My cupboards runneth over!

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  6. Hi - the lady on the McDonald's tobacco tin is known as the McDonald's Lassie. Yes, it's a Canadian tobacco company. I have a tin cigarette box that is green, and has the Lassie on it. Anyone interested?

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