This O. L. Schwencke label features a queen in a carriage made of a
sea shell with coins as wheels being pulled by lions and an
Indian child holding a large cigar!

(click on image to take you to Royal Queen)
 

Watch this video!
The Tale of the Cigar Box Label

NEWS at InStone Inc.
 

     HISTORY CORNER                                                                                                       August 11, 2010

It was suggested to us by Dr. Gerard S. Petrone, that we start a “History Corner” that features actual newspaper
articles from yesteryear when cigar label art was in its infancy. While retired, Dr. Petrone is still very actively
researching cigar label art and has turned up these very interesting articles for us to share with you.

Cigars With Fancy Names Sell Well                                      October 13, 1882    Evening Bulletin Maysville, KY

A cigar seller in this city, says, Chicago Herald, that not one man in a dozen knows anything about the cigars he is smoking, and
will smoke a five cent cigar with as much enjoyment as a fifteen cent one, provided he thinks the five center a high priced cigar. The label on a cigar box has a great deal to do with making a
cigar popular, and the quotation, “a rose would smell as sweet
by any other name,” does not hold good in this instance, as customers generally go back on a cigar when the label on a box is changed. It does no good for the clerk to explain and expostulate, the label is changed and the cigar has lost its attractions. The stealing of Cuban manufacturers’ labels by American manufacturers was caused by this simple fact. No matter how good a cigar was made by home manufacturers, they found that they were oversold by inferior grades of cigars which bore foreign brands. They adopted the foreign labels, therefore, and immediately their home manufactured cigars sprang into
deserved popularity.

The high toned smoking public merely wanted name.
It pleased a young blood more to go into a cigar store and demand a “Flora” and a “Fuma de Delecte” than to ask for a Squashtown Regalia,” or “St. Louis Domestic.” In nine cases out of ten a straight fifteen cent domestic cigar is far superior to an imported article of equal price, but you can’t argue that with the general run of customers. Among these Hebrews, as a class, are the best judges and smoke the finest articles. The Hebrew customer is much prized, and no cigar dealer who enjoys their favor is in any danger of going into bankruptcy.

                                                                                                               

Gamblers are as a rule, smokers of the finest goods, but they are customers very erratic, owing to the different changes of fortune they experience. For weeks and weeks a member of the fraternity may present himself at the same cigar counter and smoke his twenty-five cent cigars. Suddenly some day he appears and says he is tired of the brand and he will try a nickel cigar. The clerk asks no questions and in a short time he returns to his twenty-five cent weeds.


     


Flora del Cielo Smp-Inner EX 7 (PT) $200
Flor de Bahama VT-Inner NM 8 $300
La Prima Rosa V1 Smp-Inner NM 8 $200

Thank you to Dr. Petrone (author of CIGAR BOX LABELS-Portraits of life, Mirrors of History) for providing this article

                                                                                                       More News........