1506

Cigar Band Collection of the Roaring Twenties.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:62.00 USD Estimated At:125.00 - 175.00 USD
Cigar Band Collection of the Roaring Twenties.
Delightful pocket expense notebook, datestamped Mar. 30/Apr. 6, 1923, containing about 270 cigar bands. 3 1/4 x 6 x 1 thick, coffee linen over board, darkest brown cloth spine. Neatly mounted five per page, with mucilage; pencilled number for reference above each band. Period signature of Al Handy, "Local Mgr.," possibly amassed as a record of all brands sold by his tobacco warehouse at that time. A splendid profusion of design and printing artforms of the genre, with still-blinding gilt and brilliant reds, together with appearances of opaque white, black, brown, yellow, pink, blue, copper - and uncommon use of green, suitably for "Green Star Inn" brand. All diecut and embossed. Numerous "Habana" and "Havana" markings, at that time undoubtedly denoting genuine Cuban cigars, together with Tampa, Philadelphia, N.Y., Reading, Pa., Detroit, and other cities. Both popular and obscure names, including Masonic theme, Edgewater (N.J.?) Golf Club, tobacco field pictorial, "Virginia Seal," "Almighty Dollar Rothschilds," Manhattan Cigar Co., and a seemingly unending variety of graphic treatments and creative approaches. Some bands were understandably defective at time of mounting, others with minor adhesion to blank facing page from still-moist glue, varying from satisfactory to excellent, a slight majority in the best range; moderate cover wear, pencil doodles on covers, uniform page toning, and occasional light edge tears, not affecting cigar bands, suggesting this was a working wholesaler's encyclopaedia of cigar bands on the market in 1923, carried in the manager's coat pocket, not intended at the time to be a sterile "collectible." The highly specific date range of these cigar brands make them a fascinating design, marketing, and research cache.