SUBLIME TOBACCO
Lancaster Maritime Musuem, St. George's Quay until 13 April 2003

Reviewed by Susie Wood

Marketed originally as a medicinal aid and then as a macho one, tobacco is recognised as a danger to health. This exhibition explores the tale of tobacco its introduction to the west, its marketing and its material history. Susie Woods reports...

Tobacco Sublime?

I must admit that the idea of an exhibition centred on the history and effects of smoking is not immediately appealing. However Sublime Tobacco, the latest temporary exhibition at Lancaster Maritime Museum, is undeniably charming -- although perhaps not as shocking as it ought to be.

The devil often does have the best tunes and the most interesting aspects of the display are the cartoons and anecdotes that focus on the social role that tobacco has played. From the suave photographs of Noel Coward, whose glamorous image was completed by the elegant cigarette holder drooping suggestively from his languorous hand, to the witty polemic of an article by Beryl Bainbridge proclaiming the joy and relief that smoking has brought her, the pro smoking lobby is amply represented here.

I was particularly intrigued by the story of a Mrs Thompson of Burlington Gardens in London, whose enthusiasm for her "precious powder" was so great that she demanded to be buried with such a quantity of best Scotch snuff as would cover her body. Her loyal retainer and fellow addict, Sarah, was to go before the funeral procession distributing vast amounts of the stuff to passers by. In her will, Mrs Thompson states that "nothing can be so refreshing and pleasant to me" as tobacco. Modern irony surely has no place in such a story, but if it did it might churlishly point out that her "precious powder" may very well have hastened her end.

The final part of the exhibition deals precisely with this irony: that a product once marketed as invigorating and health enhancing is in fact a real danger to health with seriously anti-social side effects. The sad fact is that, apart from James I's wonderfully fanatic treatise, A Counterblast against Tobacco, most of the anti-smoking materials on show are dry as dust. Posters of the kind found in doctor's surgeries, health promotion leaflets, lists of the poisons contained in cigarettes and C-list celebrity quitters, commendable as they are, cannot compete with the eccentricity and humour present in the earlier part of the exhibition.

The last thing I would want to do is promote smoking, but I was left with some sympathy for the young jack-the-lad in one of the Punch cartoons on show who, when faced with the statement "You know tobacco is a slow poison", replies "That's all right, Lady ­ I'm in no hurry." The strange thing is that I'm still not sure whether this was the intended effect of the exhibition or not.

Review by Susie Wood

Sublime Tobacco runs at the Maritime Museum until 13 April 2003. For more information about exhibtions at the Museum visit the Virtual-Lancaster "Exhibitions" page