Exciting Ramly Discovery

[canjond]

Recently, I made an interesting Ramly find that I wanted to share with the board. Although research is still ongoing (which will be turned into a more full-fledged article), this sheds a bit more light on what is already a fairly mysterious and short-lived regional brand.

Ramly (and the associated T204s) is most closely associated with the Mentor Company of Boston, Ma. (originally T. T. Timayenis & Co.), which was formed by Telemachus Thomas Timayenis circa 1905 (any guesses as to where the brand T.T.T. came from?!). Timayenis, himself, had a very controversial past to say the least - it’s a fairly disturbing Google read that I will not dive into here so as to keep the topic purely baseball-related.

In any event, as many people know, Ramly and T.T.T. cigarette boxes are exceedingly rare, with maybe 12-15 or so Ramly boxes known at present, and a scant 4 or 5 TTT boxes known at present. Prior to last week, I was only aware of 4 different styles of Ramly cigarette boxes.

Generally speaking, the Ramly boxes can be categorized as follows, although there are some other subtle differences:

(1) a black clam shell cigarette box with the words “Turkish Cigarettes” on the bottom under the photo, which photo was framed in black;

(2) a black clam shell cigarette box with the words “Turkish Cigarettes” on the bottom under the photo, which photo was framed in purple;

(3) a black clam shell cigarette box with the words “Turkish Cigarettes” on line 1, and “Plain Tips” on line 2, on the bottom under the photo, which photo was framed in purple (and smaller than the other Ramly boxes); and

(4) a black clam shell cigarette box with the words “Turkish Cigarettes” on line 1, and “Mentor Company U.S.A.” on line 2, on the bottom under the photo, which photo was framed in black.

The inside of all of these boxes are identical in design and text. Interestingly, all of the known Ramly (and T.T.T.) cigarette boxes feature a Series of 1901 tax stamp on back, which was generally used until the end of 1908.

Then, last week, a totally new style of Ramly cigarette box popped up. This box was a red clam shell box, and featured the words “Turkish Cigarettes” on line 1, and “Mentor Company U.S.A.” on line 2, on the bottom under the photo, which photo was framed in black. More interestingly, however, is that the inside of the box had a very different design when compared to all of the other known Ramly boxes. The inner text was principally the same, except for one difference - the words Cambyses Co USA (even though the front still retains the Mentor language). Even more interesting was that this Ramly box had a 1909 (Series of 1910) tax stamp on it with no overprint, therefore dating it to circa-1910. It’s also ever so slightly smaller than the other Ramly boxes (other than Plain Tips, which is even smaller, still), although still larger than a T204 card. Also, the box is from the same factory/district as all other known Ramly boxes.

Cambyses Co was a totally new name to me, so that led me down the research path (Dheeraj Khiytani was hugely helpful in uncovering a lot of initial information on Cambyses). Cambyses Co was incorporated in Boston MA sometime between possibly 1910 and May 1911 by Edward Costello, Charles Matthews and Joseph Brennan, which is some six years after Timayenis incorporated Mentor. The first reported evidence of incorporation appeared in May 1911, but I was able to find the name Cambyses Co in a tobacconist registry as early as January 1910, which coincides with the series of 1910 tax stamp on the new Ramly box. As some may know, Edward Costello (one of the founders of Cambyses), was Mentor’s sales manager, and there are newspaper reports from the period describing his sales trips and pushing the Ramly brand on behalf of Mentor.

So, what’s the connection? How do we get from Mentor to Cambyses, and is any of this significant?

Well, by 1908 or 1909, Timayenis was in poor health (he later died in 1918), so I started with the working theory that a succession plan was put into motion whereby Ramly and related Mentor brands would be transferred to Costello to own and operate under the newly-formed Cambyses Co. After a lot of research, both Dheeraj and I were able to find information that makes this hypothesis almost a foregone conclusion, although as I type this, I haven’t located any information that definitely shows when the transition happened. However, by 1910 and 1911, there are newspaper write ups describing Cambyses as having great sales of “their” Ramly brand, so one would have to believe the transition happened before then. Also, among the snippets of information, there is a January 1914 report of a fire in the building at 404-406 Atlantic Ave damaging the offices of Cambyses Cigarette Company, which, of course, was Mentor’s former address. So, it’s clear that Cambyses didn’t just inherit Mentor’s brands, they also took over the offices and continued to do business out of the same location. In the end, however, Cambyses was short-lived, and the Company didn’t survive much past the death of Timayenis in 1918.

Now, let me get back to the significance here. It’s obviously great to tie together some loose strings on a really obscure cigarette brand, but there is more of a revelation here (at least a revelation, to me). Obviously one of the most intriguing discoveries would be if I could connect Cambyses to the distribution of the T204s, or, potentially, the square frames. I can’t yet, and I don’t even know if there would be a connection. I do find it intriguing that all known Ramly boxes prior to this new discovery clearly pre-dated the 1909 T204 date based on the tax stamps, and this new box more closely aligns with the distribution given the 1910 tax stamp, however that isn’t proof connecting Cambyses to the T204s in any way. I also find it interesting that T204s do not state Mentor Co on the back of them, although there is at least one small newspaper article describing Mentor packaging baseball photographs inside Ramly cigarette boxes. However, that's not necessarily the death knell in my mind. After all, the Cambyses Ramly box still says Mentor boldly on the outside front (its only inside it refers to Cambyses).

Now, I am sure that some might also point to the few advertisements and coupons that exist advertising the Baseball Club Photogravures. Those coupons clearly state The Mentor Co. at the bottom. And here is where things get interesting. As far as I was aware, besides a 1909 window display depicting the Boston Red Sox, the only known large format Ramly premium depicted the 1910 Pittsburgh Nationals (although we know a few different teams were offered from the coupon description). However, I have now discovered definitive proof that a Ramly premium featuring the 1912 American League champion Boston Red Sox was produced and given away by Cambyses as part of a Ramly brand campaign. As far as I’m aware, this is a totally new Ramly associated product, and extends their distribution of baseball-related redemptions to at least 1912.

So here’s the proof… In researching Canbyses, I came across a short blurb describing the “big photo picture” give-a-way that was published in an October 5, 1912 issue of the United States Tobacco Journal. The description clearly states the premium was available in exchange for 10 Ramly box tops, and could be picked up from retailers in an effort to drive Ramly sales. This is the first I’ve ever heard of a 1912 Ramly premium, so I’d love to hear from anyone who might be able to shed more light on this. Does this also mean that T204s we’re not simply a 1909 distribution? The research goes on...

In the interim, below are a series of photos laying all of the above out. Thank you to Jim Shaw, Scott Brockelman and others who I borrowed info and certain scans from. Apologies in advance it is not better organized.