Like the Cuban examples in the first exhibit, these are the oldest cigar labels yet found, and among the earliest use of commercial lithography to create point-of-sale advertising for packaging of a commercial product. Tho from the same 1835 to 1868 period, the majority of these are neither as graphic nor as topical as those seen in the first Early Cuban Labels exhibit. These are exhibited to allow scholars of early advertising and packaging to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the struggles undergone by the pioneers who experimented with package and label design, layout, topic, font choice, color, and brand name. The cigar industry progressed from precedent-less chaos to innovation within standardization and gave birth, over the next half century, to all modern advertising.
This expansion of the NCM exhibit of the earliest known cigar labels is made possible by the courtesy of wine label aficionado Thomas Wangler, a German collector who found these in a scrapbook of wine and liquor labels he purchased. Mr. Wangler has since disbursed the collection, now in private hands in the U.S., Canada, Europe and South America.
More Early Cuban Labels
A National Cigar Museum Exclusive
Photos courtesy of Thomas Wangler, Dottingen, Germany
Vertical style usually pasted flat on the top of boxes.
[xx049]
Small end and inner label with unusually
heavy (out of proportion?) border.
[xx050]
Label printed for cigarettes made for the Russian market of a mix of domestic and Turkish tobacco.
[xx051]
Similar to label seen in first exhibit, but printed on a different color paper. Note octagonal cut by hand.
[xx055]
The mahogany tree. Another very heavy
border and use of broadside like type font
arrangement, with each line a different face.
[xx056]
The sweet pineapple. Oval inner with
hand-done octagonal cut.
[xx057]
Top label with maker’s warrantee.
[xx058]
King palm, an island staple.
[xx094]
The label style that ultimately “wins” and
becomes the standard outer in the U.S.
and Cuba during the 1860’s and 1870’s
for boxes of 100. [xx059]
Same label on brown ink on odd green paper. The square picture fit the end of a box of 100 and
the text overlapped onto the top of the box.
[xx089]
Fabrica de tobacos translates as “cigar factory.”
How exactly this label was used is unknown.
[xx070]
Black on yellow was a readable and attractive
early combination.
[xx080]
Another label with exact use unknown.
Depicts the type of boat making weekly runs to Cuba from NY and Philadelphia during most.of the 19th century. [xx082]
“The Design” is stylish design. Round labels
were used as both inners and outers.
[xx091]
Brand of Francisco Perez del Rio,
an important early manufacturer.
Oval inner with octagonal hand-cut.
[xx092]
“Loyalty” exemplified by a man and his dog by Morejon y Roxas, makers of cigarettes and “segars of every description” according to their inner.
[xx093]
The Count of Nesselrode, a negotiator of Treaty of Paris ending the US Revolutionary War. Strange
versions of Russian and US flags. Very early
label honoring important diplomat. [xx096]
Supporter of Queen Regent Maria Christina
against pretender Don Carlos in the 1830’s.
Early topical label. [xx098]
Oval inner with octagonal cut. A lot of
extra work with questionable benefit.
[xx097]
Simple small label reading Cigar Factory of Don Fernando Rodriguez del Valle outside the wall.
[xx095]
Simple use of maker’s name and bi-lingual
Spanish and French text for the European market.
[xx099]
Probably colloquial use of El Espeso, since it’s literally thick, dense, gross, heavy, slovenly...
[xx100]
A common form of label in Cuba, simply giving
the maker’s name and signature in Spanish
and in the language where marketed. Oval inner.
[xx102]
Typical Spanish English label, but announcing
a change of name and address.
[xx103]
Blue on white depiction of the deadly hurricane of 1844 which destroyed the tobacco crop.
[xx132]
Red depiction of the same event.
[xx137]
Inevitable combination of the two. Certainly
one of the earliest two color cigar labels.
[xx101]
Spanish-English-French label with ultimately
odd ratio of picture to text.
[xx104]
English material manufacturer turned economist
and writer who traveled extensively. Elected to Parliament as anti-corn law rep. in 1840’s.
Early use of contemporary politician. [xx106]
Simple unattractive oval with 8 different typefaces, a common practice carried over from handbills and posters. [xx107]
Blank ink on colored paper, makers name and address, decorative border and each line a different font. Oval design with octagonal cut. [xx108]
Sweetness of smell on a French, English
and Spanish label with decorative border and maker’s name and address. [xx109]
Young Black. Text on top of a picture on
a vertical label is the style that predominates
in later decades, but not in this ratio.
[xx131]
Major-General commanding Indian army in early 1840’s. Picture on top, text below is a short-lived
label design, not practical except as a top label. Useless inside or on the end. [xx133]
Punctuality or preciseness, possibly referring to uniformity of hand-made product. Soon to be
discarded label style. [xx135]
The eagle is the most common of cigar label birds. Rare mention of the cigar factory as wholesalers is on this “eight-sided” but uncut label.
[xx138]
Literary characters appeared on labels early.
French and Spanish.
[xx136]
Lithographer signed label emphasizing the island’s connection to the mother country. Lit. de Gobierno. Cigars by Ramon Diaz y Ca (and company).
[xx139]
The brand name can mean competence and also competition. Cigars by Juan Suarez. Octagonal design and cut was not common.
[xx143]
Label looks the same except for paper color but close inspection shows the die from which it was
printed is very close but different. No lithographer’s
mark on the label on the right. [xx153]
Resolution, determination of Pablo Valdes.
Six fonts on a small oval is typical of the period.
[xx147]
Close examination of the label collection reveals a limited number of fonts, used repeatedly. There were only a few lithographers.
[xx148]
More ornate than most borders. English text
uses “segars” spelling. Words run together
in second line of type. Infiesta?
[xx146]
ASEO is cleanliness, a good name for a cigar
in days when that was a concern. Fancy border, eight typefaces in 13 lines. Spanish, English and French text. [xx169]
When borders take over. Experimental placement of the brand name within a very thick border.
Successful? You decide. [xx175]
Octagonal cut around a typical oval label. Bendueles?
[xx182]
The Globe cigar factory of Manuel Nora.
Tercera are the lowest quality cigars.
Picture-frame border.
[xx149]
The Globe cigar factory used a fancier label with a more decorative border for their Bueno (good) grade of cigars. Still not the highest possible grade.
I wonder what that label looked like. [xx154]
Heavy border in odd double-signed label
touting the tobacco as “from the Leeward Coast,”
a perhaps unique declaration.
[xx165]
A statue of the three graces decorates this triptych design for LA VICTORIA cigars. Text in Spanish, English and German. Lit. del Gobierno[?].
[xx141]
Flor is one of the better grades of cigar.
Estefan Dominguez Diazl uses a florid decorative
border, suitable given the use of Flora (same meaning as in English) as a brand name. [xx167]
No brand name or maker’s name, just a factory address on this unusual label with cut rounded corners. Text in Spanish, English and French.
[xx170]
One of Cuba’s oldest cigar brands, mentioned in an 1838 Boston newspaper advertisement.
Spanish, French and English text.
[xx178]
Decorative border on small (4” mas o menos)
labels which could be used as inner or outer. Eight fonts were used on this Spanish-English label.
[xx179]
Square bottom image with text above, the style which ultimately is adopted for nearly all outer labels. Lithograph of spinning woman is
by Luis Marquier. [xx183]
Spanish, English and German text highlight this vertical label used by Joaquin Diaz.
[xx184]
Early labels, like this, often indicated that the tobacco comes from the manufacturer’s own
vega (farm) in the Vuelta Abajo (Cuba’s best
tobacco region). [xx229]
First label of long-lived important brand’s top
grade of cigar. Anselmo Gonzales del Valle
was maker of other brands seen in the first exhibit. [xx230]
Tri-lingual label with maker identified
only as A.F.
[xx234]
Triple-layered border on an all-Spanish label
named after, but not picturing, a brunette.
Maker not identified.
[xx235]
Astronomical brand name: Sirius or the dog-star
appears on this all Spanish label.
[xx237]
Good taste or good pleasure in Spanish,
English and German.
[xx238]
Ambrosia is the same in many languages. Text in Spanish, English, and French. Highly unusual use
of “cigarros” to mean cigars when it is more commonly translated as cigarettes. [xx244]
