Sometime in the 1850’s Cuban cigarette manufacturer Louis
Susini began bundling his smokes in colorful 4 3/4” x 3 3/8”  
paper wrappers, one of the earlier uses of full color lithographic
 labels to package a product. No one knows who came up with
the brilliant idea to design the labels in sets, thus becoming the
first use of a collectible to sell tobacco, but it was a stroke of
marketing genius. The use of these wrappers had three impor-
tant consequences: [1] sets encouraged collectors, thus multiple
purchases, [2] collecting generated publicity and [3] the ever-
changing sets became a major weapon in Susini’s worldwide
battle with counterfeiters.
 
 
    Because Cuban cigarettes were the most expensive in the world, generally selling for three to ten times as much as local brands, criminals in Europe, Asia and South America attempted to cash in by packaging cheap local cigarettes in fake Honradez labels. When Honradez began using the latest in printing technology to wrap cigarettes in colorful themed sets, like butterflies, fables and military uniforms rather than one standard black and white label, it made their package much more difficult to counterfeit. Periodically changing the designs and themes made it possible for Susini’s distributors to notify retailers in advance, “next month we’ll be shipping stamps of the world, the following month, views of the city of Naples.” Foreign counterfeiters, even if they were able to obtain advance notice of impending sets did not have time to create, print, wrap and deliver cigarettes in the appropriate wrappers for that [week/fortnight/month/indeterminate period].
 
 
    The clever pioneering artists at Honradez helped foil fakers by not only changing the theme and the number of pictures in a set, but by changing the borders surrounding the central image. Whether intentional or not, the lack of standard borders and the continually changing company logo depicting the statue of Justice that stood in front of the factory added to the faker’s dilemma. The lithographic stones for these labels were idiosyncratically hand drawn, though each series appears to have been created by a single artist.
 
    Susini’s charming and informative packages were so popular with children and adults alike that other Cuban companies were compelled to offer similar wraps. Cuban cigarettes of the 1860’s included Julian Rivas’s Figaro, Celestino Asay’s Florita, La Viuda (widow) de Garcia’s Mi Fama por el Orbe Vuela, Llaguno y Cia’s La Charanga de Villergas, Eduardo Guillos’s Para Usted, Anselmo del Valle’s H de Cabañas y Carvajal, La Dignidad,
La Africana, La Belleza, La Rosarito and Barcenas y Posadas.
For more than two decades Louis Susini’s La Honradez and other
companies continually created new cigarette package labels. Almost
4,000 different are reported to be in three scrapbooks housed in
the  Jose Marti National Library in Cuba.
 
    This sample from the NCM collection is intended to show
the wonderful imagination, variety and artistry of cigarette
packaging 150 years ago.
 
La Honradez cigarette labels
The 1st tobacco collectible
A National Cigar Museum Exhibit
© Tony Hyman
Four different sets of Military uniforms:
Officials of the ejercito regulars. [K10 - 97]
Cazadores Tiroleses. Note different borders
representing different countries. [K10 - 62]
Official de Ingenieros Pegnero.
[K10 - 21]
Cosacos del Gran Duque Heredero.
[K10 - 59]
Religious habits: Capuchin monks.
[K10 - 3]
Sisters of the Visitation.
[K10 - 20]
Penitentes blancos. White penitents.
[K10 - 28]
 Anunciada Celeste. Does different border mean
different set?  It appears so. [K10 - 75]
Gory set of fables of Samaniego with stories of
snakes, rats, death, and violence. [K10 - 72]
Unusual series with the fable printed on the reverse.
[K10 - 52]
 
[K10 - 95]
 
[K10 - 32]
 
[K10 - 61]
 
[K10 - 100]
 
[K10 - 99]
Not all labels were issued in sets. Sign language
alphabet.  [K10 - 101]
Scenes of Venice
[K10 - 53]
Scenes of Venice
[K10 - 29]
Butterflies
[K00 - 28]
 
[K00 - 12]
Needlework alphabet.
[K10 - 74]
Different borders don’t mean a
different set in this case.  [K10 - 45]
Desirable set of Chinese scenes, larger than most and rare in that it was used. Folds visible. [10340]
Another oversize (5.5” x 3.75”) used label, Folded just above and below central image.  [10341]
Spanish uniforms: Caribinero
[K21 - 30]
English uniforms: Lanceros
[K21 - 53]
English seafaring uniiforms.
[K21 - 32]
English uniforms: riflemen.
[K21 - 13]
Album of the animals: prima dona.
[K21 - 20]
Dolor Nervoso.
[K21 - 65]
A primera sangre.
[K21 - 57]
El agua gendita.
[K21 - 3]
Recuerdo a la posteridad.
[K21 - 24]
Un buen gallo. Duel, death and plays on words
were all popular. [K21 - 17]
Important women: Elizabeth d’Orleans
[K21 - 11]
La Princesse de Lamballe.
[K21 - 48]
Mademoiselle de la Valliere
[K21 - 16]
Agnes Sorel.
[K21 - 49]
Nobility: Reina Hortense.
[K21 - 26]
Margarita de Vallois
[K21 - 02]
Nobility: Duquesa de Maine.
[K21 - 52]
Maria Luisa.
[K21 - 21]
Isabeau de Baviere
[K21 - 07]
Galeria de los soberanos: Christiano IX,
King of Dinamarca.  [K21 - 63]
Animated flowers Series, each listing what the flower symbolizes: Espino: envidia.  [K23-112]
Aleli: fiel en la desgracia. Unusual series in that
each has a different wall-paper border. [K23-128]
Siempreviva: estoy baio tu imperior.
[K23 - 27]
Clavel: amor vivo y puro.
[K23 - 85]
Margarita: lo pensare.
[K23 - 53]
Lila: primer amor.
[K23 - 47]
1866 almanac: July
[K23 - 143]
September: vacation at Mont. Blanc, Switzerland
[K23 - 42]
Style II 1866 almanac: July women fishing.
[K23 - 41]
November women hunting.
[K23-126]
August busty butsy women boating.
[K23 - 32]
Second type of almanac is racier.
[K23 - 148]
Unnamed series:  Telegrafo de amor.
[K10 - 11]
Unnamed series:  Caballero of the order of
St. John of Jerusalem.  [K10 - 34]
Cazador de infanteria Estados Unidos.
Number 39 in the Comic Military series.  [K23-73]
Ethnic humor: Las ultimas modas para las carreras.
[K23 - 102]
Unnamed series: Esperimentos de nuevos ictineos.
Label for shorter cigarettes.  [K23 - 35]
Papal court series
[K00 - 91]
Stamps of the world: Brazil
[K00 - 63]
English colonies.
[K00 - 76]
Cape of Good Hope
[K00 - 50]
France
[K00 - 93]
Baveria
[K00 - 75]
Holland
[K00 - 99]
Three friends and a stupid joke. Not all cigarettes
were the same length. [K00 - 3]
Terrible children series: Los dos obstinados
[K13 - 14]
Fantasy series: el amor fotografo
[K13 - 15]
Chinese series: School in China. Larger used
5” x 3 5/8” label for slightly larger cigarette.
Unnamed sweet little girl series.
[K00 - 71]
 
[K13 - 79]
 
[K13 - 76]
 
[K13 - 66]
Unnamed series:  Yo no lo hare mas
[K13 - 31]
Despues.
[K13 - 88]
Primera escala del amor.
[K13 - 92]
Primer paso de la doncella.
[K13 - 55]
FIGARO made cigars and cigarettes since the 1840’s and used racier nudie labels. [K19-112]
FIGARO used a jester-like male in the logo. See the
same figure in the Cuban box exhibit. [K19-21]
Like LA HONRADEZ, FIGARO cigarettes were made in more than one blend and size.  [K21-58]
Julian Rivas was the maker of FIGARO.
[K23-149]
LA DIGNIDAD flower series
[K10-85]
LA DIGNIDAD flower series.
[K10-66]
H(ija) de CABANAS y CARBAJAL made cigarettes as
well as cigars. [K10-65]
The company used the same logo for both.
[K10-89]
LA CHARANGA DE VILLERGAS labels used humor and everyday life series. [K21-60]
Borders changed colors but not pattern. The naval disaster series is particularly well drawn. [K21-40]
“Town brigands” says the FLORITA label.
Logo is a pair of lovers. [K10-13]
Celestino Asay used “Before the Dance” as part of
this LA FLORITA series. [K21-41]
Eduardo Guillo’s PARA USTED used a range of
pretty labels. [K23-66]
 
[K21-73]
Vices and virtues were important series for
PARA USTED. This is valor.  [K21-14]
Gluttony is one of the sins represented. Note the Susini-like female logo. [K23-52]
The widow of Garcia’s MI FAMA labels represent a wide range of quality of artwork. [K19-83]
“The Sale.” Note the Susini-like female in the logo.   [K21-31]
Three layout styles are found in the three MI FAMA labels in the NCM.  [K19-72]
 
These photos were shot outdoors on slide film in sunlight with a hand-held Minolta 7000 five years before I had the eBox. The lightweight paper used to print these wrappers often curled before I could get the picture.
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