3 or more tabacco jars

Why I have 3 jars or boxes related to smoking I don't know. Nobody smoke's in the house.
But my father and brothers and my grandfather where smokers.
This first box was an Ebay find. I stumbled on it and it was almost to be sold but nobody seemed to want it. I was struck by it from the moment I layed eyes on this battered old thing.
It has so much charm. I guess it must be from the early Victorian times maybe 1840 or so?? Don't ask me why but it has that feeling over it. It is a dog kennel with a little copper dog in front of it. The box is made of wood and decorated with metal studs.As you can see,it is really battered and brused. On the inside you can see remnants of the foil that traditionally covered the inside of sigar boxes and it also has the dividers for the sigars.

Don't you find this box as charming as I did when I first saw it???
The second tabacco jar my daughter and I found it at an antiques fair. My daughter absolutely wanted it but she could not afford it, since it costed almost 150 dollars. But I also was charmed by it and so it went home with us. I know why my daugther wanted it. As always it was because there was a cat on it.
Once again it is a dogkennel and two little dogs lay at the door of there kennel that is overgrown with ivy.

But aldo it is a dogs kennel the cat is master of the roost by proudly sitting on top of the kennel. The back of this box is plain but at the side you see two ivy bushes.

Are'nt they sweet little puppies?

My third tabacco jar is once again a dog kennel. In our country I olden days you often saw dogs who had an old beer or wine barrel for a kennen.
This ceramic jar comes from a little ceramic factory that once existed in the town where I was born.My grandfather, who's father worked as a blacksmith in that factory had a tabacco jar like this. These jars come in two sizes and in two colors, green and golden brown.

We never knew a lot about that factory, even the city had little or no interest. After my grandparents dyed and the house was cleared we found several things from that factory but nobody wanted these object because they where oldfashioned. I took home a pair of candlesticks because I found them very charming and an old flowerpot. My mother took home three majolica plates with grapes. How ever took home the tabacco jar I do not know.
But the fact of the matter is that after a while my joungest brother began to have an interest in this factory and started collecting the stuff. I found this tabacco jar in Antwerp in a tiny antique store and my brother was very jalous of it but he took revange and now is an authority on the subject. He has a major collection, hase founded a collecters group and is staging exebitions on the subject of this majolica factory.

You now can understand why this little bulldog in his barrel means so much to mee. Want to see more of this factory ? Here is the link http://www.hasseltskeramiek.be/

Hope you enjoyed my stuff and....sorry for the dust!