Punch was a popular trade figure both inside and out. The inside figure (above) is 23” high and in original paint. [P1270097].
An interesting mystery surrounds the top brand (marca) of the older Corujo PUNCH box. Who is Rio y Ca.? Yet another owner prior to Parera? It’s likely. [W0045]
According to Nee, in 1884 Punch became the property of Manuel Lopez Fernandez, brother of Fernando Lopez Fernandez, who ran the prolific Juan Valle y Cia. cigar company. Members of the Valle family appear to have made and marketed Punch under Manuel Lopez’s name for many decades.
The F. Lebkuecher cigar factory, location unknown. c1890 [21354].
The “Guide to Cuban Cigar Manufacturers” found in the 1892 tourist guide Cuba Illustrated claims to have been “carefully compiled” so visitors could buy premium cigars directly at the factory, and get a free tour by showing a copy of the book. A box of Punch, it reads, could be obtained at the factory of Lopez y Corripio, located at San Rafael 87, a mere 20¢ (in silver) ride “from any part of the city.”
Ownership changes are not unusual as Cubans swapped business alliances as often as some folks change underwear. No brands are listed in the Directory but it is assumed Señor Valle continued making Punch.
$12.50, payable only in gold, a
The 1898 Guidebook lists among Valle’s marcas anexas (brands obtained when taking over another company) Sin Par
and Flor de Corujo reflecting the Valle family acquisition of Corujo’s brands some time prior. The 1909 edition of that line of Cuban cigar shopping guides reports the factory expanded, now operating out of Rayo 28 and 30. Their “impress your friends” smoke was a half-pound “Grandioso” sold only in boxes of 10 cigars priced at $10 in American gold, and not including any fancy box.
The relationship between Manuel Lopez and the Valle family is unclear. During the late 1800s and early 1900s official and tourist directories list Lopez and either Manuel or J. Valle as owners. Perhaps the Valles acted as wholesaler-distributors for Lopez. William Gill’s famous Havana Cigars published in 1910 Havana, lists Punch as still belonging to Manuel Lopez and located at Rayo 28.
In 1924, Esperanza Valle Comas became new owner of Punch according to Nee, but I’ve found no other source for that. The box above from the 1950s continues to show the J. Valle and Manual Lopez names, but means little as the Cuban cigar making tradition tends to honor founders or prominent owners on boxes and labels long after they have retired or died. Note the 2/85¢ price. Those were the days.
The stock market crash and subsequent worldwide depression had an enormous impact on Cuban cigars, the world’s most expensive. U.S. and European imports plummeted to a fraction of what they had been a decade earlier. The financially strapped company fire-saled the Punch brand to Fernandez & Palicio y Cia who kept the brand alive, selling it along side their Belinda, La Escepcion and Hoyo de Monterrey. In 1940 and 1946, Punch was listed as the property of Fernandez, Palicio y Cia, located at 51 Maximo Gomez Street in Havana. Although Costa’s 1951-52 Directory of Cuban brands and makers does not include Punch among the other three Palicio offerings, it remains in the Fernandez Palicio y Cia. catalog until the Cuban revolution. In 1961 only 6 sizes, ranging from 30¢ to 75¢ were sold in the U.S.
Note: Name punctuation inconsistencies exist, and are printed here as in the original documents.
Punch in Punch, a 1927 ad in the famous satire magazine. In the late 1920s Punch was one of only 28 Cuban brands being imported into England, most in a limited number of vitolas (front marks / sizes).
At the time of Cuba’s first successful revolution, by Fidel Castro, the brand was sold worldwide and remained especially popular in England. Punch was among the brands that ultimately continued after Castro took control, and is one of the brands offered under the Habanos - Altadis alliance today.
An elegant gold on black label marks some later Punch boxes.
Seen courtesy of Wayne Dunn.
From its founding in 1840 to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Punch brand was successful around the globe. But success breeds imitation. During those years knock-offs proliferated in Cuba, Canada, the United States and, though I have no specific examples, probably Europe and elsewhere. Beginning in the 1870s, if not before, American cigar label printers offered a variety of labels with variations on the Punch name, character and label design. Knock-offs included copying the label, simulating the label, using the name Punch on boxes with labels nothing like the original that would fool only those familiar with the name but not the image, using the label’s design with unrelated brands, and even creating humorous parodies based on the Punch name. Examples of these can be seen below.
The best-known and biggest selling was Tansill’s Punch, made by New York City cigar maker R.W. Tansill and advertised, often extravagantly, on trade cards and handbills for nearly 50 years, starting in 1862. Nothing exemplifies their ads better than this excerpt from an 1880 mailer:
above: [2490] below: [2497]
