Fribourg & Treyer

Fribourg & Treyer was one of London's oldest tobacconist houses. Traditionally dated to 1720, the shop operated at its Haymarket address for two and a half centuries and earned its main reputation through snuff. Among pipe enthusiasts it is remembered for the blends and pipes it put on the market under its own name.

Founding and the Forming of the Name

The business traces back to the Fribourg family, said to be of Swiss origin. The founding date of 1720 rests on tradition rather than documentation: the oldest surviving account book from the shop is dated 1764. A firmer trace exists in a tax record from 1767, which shows Peter Fribourg paying tax on a property on the Haymarket. The second name comes from the German-born Gottlieb Treyer, who married Martha Evans of the Evans family, already partners in the business. Treyer's surname was added alongside the long-established Fribourg name, giving the firm the title it would carry until its closure.

Reputation as a Snuff House

The house's main trade for a long time was snuff. Around 1820, roughly nine-tenths of sales came from snuff, with smoking tobacco making up the small remainder. Cigarettes and cigars entered the shelves only from the mid-nineteenth century onward. The shop was also known for Turkish tobacco; these tobaccos have long been considered the backbone of fine blends in English pipe smoking and are still examined today under the heading of Oriental tobacco. Its customers included figures such as the actor David Garrick, King George IV, and Beau Brummell, the era's model of dress. The building at 34 Haymarket, its façade largely preserved, still holds listed-building status today.

Pipes and Closure

Fribourg & Treyer never had its own pipe workshop. Following a practice common in the trade, the shop had its pipes made by outside manufacturers and stamped only its own name; who actually produced these pipes went unrecorded in most cases. This approach marks the essential difference from firms such as Barling or Comoy's, which manufactured in their own factories: here the brand is a name for selection and retail rather than for manufacture. The collector interest the stamp attracts is therefore tied more to the shop's history than to any technical feature of the pipe.

Accounts of the firm's final period do not fully agree. It is said to have passed into the hands of Imperial Tobacco in the 1970s and to have moved to Regent Street when it could no longer cover the rent on Haymarket; these details have not been confirmed by independent sources. What can be confirmed is that the shop closed in 1981 and that the snuff and tobacco recipes changed hands. The brand name is carried on today by Wilsons of Sharrow, the long-established Sheffield snuff maker. The house's old blends remain a subject of curiosity among enthusiasts tracing the English blend tradition.