Old tobacco crotte

Vintage tobacco carrot. 50s-60s. Its size is 79 X 20 cm. Very beautiful original painting. Some very light bumps due to age and invisible. The carrot is first and foremost the name given to this red sign that can be found at the entrance to all tobacco offices. It is a legal obligation: all buralists have been obliged to wear this signage since 1906, to indicate that they sell tobacco. It has evolved a lot: it was not necessarily red at the beginning, sometimes brown. Today, it must be bright. One of the explanations often heard about the origin of this symbol is that the carrot allows better preservation of tobacco. Putting a piece of carrot in a tobacco jar keeps it fresh, it's true... But that may not be the real explanation. It is an evocation of the sale of tobacco as it was in the 16th century. At the time, tobacco was sold in leaves, whether chewed or smoked. And these sheets were not collected in packets, but in small tied rolls... Resembling carrots!.

Ref. : CQYCKPCY