Antiques: Sometimes a label makes the cigar
For some reason, cigars tend to turn up in a lot of famous aphorisms. There was “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” (Sigmund Freud), modified by Stephen King to “Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke,” and before that Mark Twain’s remark that “If heaven has no cigars, I shall not go there.” Maybe the Surgeon General needs to cook up a few pithy comments of his own.
In any event, let’s dispense with the cigar commentary and talk about their labeling. There’s a lot to like about that.
Smoking tobacco has been around for centuries. It originated in the New World and no less an explorer than Christopher Columbus was among the first to witness it. He saw tobacco being cultivated in what now is Haiti and the Dominican Republic and eventually introduced its use to Europe. By the mid-19th century, cigars had become a standard means of smoking tobacco, and production moved from Hispaniola to Cuba. Demand boomed, and before long there were hundreds of factories rolling cigars and shipping them off to Europe.
As competition increased, the need arose for factories to distinguish their products from all the others.
During Cuba’s battle for independence from Spain, many cigar makers relocated to Key West and later to Tampa. Thanks to cigars, Tampa by the late 1920s had become a thriving community with more than 10,000 residents engaged in that business. The peak came in 1929 when some 200 factories churned out nearly half a billion cigars. Thereafter, however, the decline was swift as the cigar industry began to embrace automation and the increasing popularity of cigarettes adversely affected demand. The final nail in the coffin came in 1962 with the embargo of Cuban tobacco by the United States.
Today, only one cigar factory in Tampa remains in operation.
It was during Tampa’s heyday as the cigar-making capital of the world that the idea of glitzy box labels was introduced. Many were beautifully designed, often with gilt trimmings, and regularly featured historical figures, landmarks and patriotic themes. The latter were especially popular during the SpanishAmerican War in 1898, the irony of which was probably not lost on many. That a product made from tobacco grown in a Spanish colony was now trumpeting the colors of its opponent in war was an interesting twist in cigar marketing history. All the same, fancy labels continued to adorn boxes of cigars until Cuban tobacco was banished from import, but the expense of gilt printing and new types of packaging techniques largely put an end to their use.
Today, of course, most legal cigar tobacco comes once again from the island of Hispaniola where enormous plantations still thrive. The Dominican Republic is now the world’s largest cigar producer with brands such as Arturo Fuente and Davidoff. Nicaragua is also on the rise as a major cigar producer, while Cuban brands such as Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas remain the elite elsewhere in the world. As for cigar box labels, the Museum of Florida History has more than 1,500 examples in its assortment, and they are a sight to behold. Collectively it is one of the most elegant arrays of marketing artwork ever created. Many are easily viewed online.
Mike Rivkin and his wife, Linda, are long-time residents of Rancho Mirage. For many years, he was an award-winning catalogue publisher and has authored seven books, along with countless articles. Now, he’s the owner of Antique Galleries of Palm Springs. His antiques column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Want to send Mike a question about antiques? Drop him a line at info@silverfishpress.com.