OLD VIRGINIA CHEROOTS

The story of a classic low price brand that lasted for 55 years under 5 owners.

PLUS exclusive info about these boxes for Ebay sellers.   <VISIT>



                           



PUNCH

    An Italian wife-beater from the middle-ages was a popular English puppet and a hit as a Cuban cigar that generates seemingly endless knock-offs.  <VISIT>




                           





   

  CONDITION  -  CONDITION  -  CONDITION

    Condition is important in determining the value of any historic object. Cigar boxes are no exception. The exhibit is open while under construction with lots more coming. You can get an early look.  <VISIT>



                           



    CIGAR LEAF ART

    From Cuba comes this meticulous craft. Little is known about the artists who so painstakingly punched tobacco from between the leaf’s veins.   <VISIT>

  Collection is for sale.











                           






         

EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN

    How did the cigar industry weigh in during the 1870s and 1880s?  The answer may surprise you.  <VISIT>



                           




FULL BOXES

    A century of how cigars were packed in boxes: plain, banded, aluminum, glass,

tissue, foiled & more. <VISIT>


BOXES FOR  

      SALE







                          



TAX WARS

      What happened when Congress passed the first tax in 45 years even tho no one knew how to write a tax law, or enforce one?  

    Government agents were required to find 1,000 tiny cigar factories scattered over a dozen states...on horseback...in winter.   <VISIT>



                           
 

Cigar History Museum

History of cigars, cigar boxes, cigar labels, cigar making,

cigar cutters, cigar premiums, cigar tools, cigar promotions,

and other things cigar in the U.S. and around the world.

HOME PAGE




        Between 1762 and 1962, the folks who made and sold cigars were on the cutting edge of advertising. They created nearly every advertising image, gimmick and theme used today. These pioneers led the way into the world of modern advertising.


        No package was used in more ways, in so many shapes and sizes, with so many images, than a cigar box. In the art of using the package to attract the customer’s eye, the cigar industry did it earlier, better and more adventurously than anyone.  The cigar industry created point-of-sale advertising.


        Like all pioneers, not all their ideas were good ones.


        The men and women who selected a brand name or chose an image worked without precedents, polls or web-sites to warn them not to decorate their boxes with  skunks, drunks, spiders, snakes and Satan to sell cigars.

So they did.


        Marketers of other products watched with interest ... and learned that pretty girls, dogs, cute kids, cute girls, sports, celebrities, cute women celebrities, good health, healthy girls, good times, wealth and good looking women were much more popular with customers. 


        In the U.S. cigar industry, experimenting with brands was a way of life. Lessons were never-ending. Cigar companies, salesmen, wholesalers, retailers and even customers ... everyone created brand names, chose pictures, selected the style of box. It was “Advertising Anarchy”® at its ultimate. 


        Between 1762 and 1962, two million brands of cigars displayed six hundred billion domestic and clear Havana cigars made and sold in the U.S.


The “industry” that sold those billions was fragmented into tens of thousands of small clever entrepreneurs, advertising pioneers, innovative package designers, hard workers, progressive unionists, government regulators, counterfeiters and tax evaders.


         It’s the greatest story ever NOT told.


This Cigar Museum is my way of sharing that story and the artifacts I’ve found. 


        I take full responsibility for errors of fact, omission or interpretation. If you think I’m wrong, misguided, or ill-informed, you might be right.  Feel free to let me know. 


Tony Hyman

Central California

2014


Info Most

visitors want:




CIGAR BOXES

  OVERVIEW

  LINKS TO ALL TYPES

  IDENTIFYING BOXES



CIGAR TOOLS I

Identification guide

CIGAR TOOLS II

Expanded details




CIGAR BRANDS

OF CUBA

Most complete list

    ever published





HEALTHY CIGARS

Good for you?






FELTS-FLANNELS

Give-away phenom






FRAUDS, FAKES

& FANTASIES

and things not cigar




          

CONDITION

Open while

Under Construction





         

FAMOUS BRANDS

A few. More coming





A Surprise

Coming





AND

230

MORE EXHIBITS





Site Outline

Overview of what’s here



Cigar History

Tales previously untold


NEW AND IMPROVED

Cigar_Box_History

18 illustrated Exhibits



Cigar Tax Battles

And they were battles



Making Cigars

By hand & machine



Selling Cigars

The fun and frolic



Cigar Label Themes

Labels, labels, labels



Cigar Advertising

Scheduled 2015



Types_of_Cigar_Boxes

A good place to start



Types of Wooden Boxes

Endless



Types of Tin Boxes

Since 1870



Other types of Boxes

Cardboard, plastic, etc.



Novelty Boxes

Since 1878



Dating Cigar Boxes

It’s easy



Premiums

Girlie pix to automobiles



Cuba

A sad wonderful story



Canada

Bigger than you think



Europe

A small beginning



Cigarettes

An overview, plus...



Cigar Definitions

What they really mean



Accessories

Cutters, lighters, more



Bibliography

Books & magazines



The_Museum

Tony, visiting, selling to



SPECIAL EXHIBITS


Here’s how I did it



Frauds-Fakes-Fantasies

Other things not boxes



I want to buy:

Boxes. photos, catalogs +



Close_But_no_cigar

Where did the phrase start?



“The Perfect Package”

What is it ?



Women and Cigars I

Early years 1725 - 1875



Women and Cigars II

Label years 1870 - 1920



Children and Cigars

Junior cigar fiends



Chuck Tuthill Collection

Left to me in his will



Made from Boxes

Such clever people


cigarette playing cards

Sample of what’s available


tobacco playing cards

Sample of what’s available



Links to Other Places;

Links to other sites



Q & A

Visitor questions answered



Something else

Not yet
















 

Brief Introduction to

Cigar Boxes  1762-1962


      U.S. Cigar Industry Numbers 1762-1962:

            250,000 cigar factories;

            100 label printers;                                

            1,000 box makers;

            2,000,000 brands of cigar

            10,000,000 wholesalers and retailers;

            1,000,000,000 cigar boxes.


  Updates and additions are made continually



Not all new Exhibits are listed below.

New

SEE ALL OTHER ADDITIONS


A special thanks to my wife and fellow adventurer, Marilee, who has always encouraged and supported my research and buying.


Want to sell or donate

to the Museum?

go here to see what

I’m looking for.

CLOSE...

BUT NO CIGAR !

I assumed everyone knew the origin of this once popular phrase, but when writing a Q&A column for CIGAR Magazine, was twice  asked... so here it is.

<VISIT>

MORE PICTURES  March 2015

            EXHIBIT                   DOUBLED IN SIZE 
June 2018 ... It is easier than ever for you to identify your United Cigar Store coupons