Two+ decades ago I was offered the opportunity to buy these from a Cuban refugee. These elaborate works of art are created by carefully picking away tobacco between the fine veins of a tobacco leaf.

        I don’t know who made these...a single artist? A cooperative of artists?    

                Members of a particular occupation?  Rollers on down time?

        What tool did they use?  A pin? A knife? Something special?

        What is the backstory behind them? Who made the first one?

        Did the artists sell them? Who? Where? For how much?

        Are they still made? Who? Where? For how much?

        I can make some reasonable “guesstimates” but it’s better for everyone if real facts got woven in there somewhere. If you know the answer to ANY of the above mysteries, please drop me a line <Tony@CigarHistory.info>

        How I got them in the mail nearly 25  years ago is how they are today. They arrived in a lot of 19th and early 20th century Cuban goods, for which I’d paid a hefty sum. These leaves were in old brown paper envelopes in various stages of disintegration (the envelopes, not the leaves). Leaves are in surprisingly good condition and will stay that way if you give them the respect they deserve. They are as you see in the Exhibit. I’m a shaky old man and didn’t want to risk damaging them by handling more than necessity.  As a result, photos were taken as each particular leaf is stored: with brown paper above and below the leaf, or with brown paper below the leaf, or with the leaf out of the paper.