First permitted by the law of 1878, log cabin shaped boxes were very popular in the 1880’s. Cabins underwent a minor revival around the turn of the century, and appeared again in the 1930’s. Log cabins are inevitably 100/13 packing, tho a few 50’s and even a 25 or two exist.
Note the construction details of the logs and roof.
Log Cabins
A National Cigar Museum Exhibit
(c) Tony Hyman
Individual logs, but roof is two piece.
Cigars by Straiton & Storm, one of the
nation’s largest factories, 1879.
Factory 11, 3rd NYC had 1,000 rollers.
[9241]
Interior label printed by New York Label
Publishing Company. 1879
[9240]
Fact. 1065, 3rd New York City, 1880.
Walls are one piece.
[3455]
Miners gambling with cigars while taking a break. Lovely Schumacker & Ettlinger label. 1880.
[5713]
CABIN HOME is the most common of the log cabin shaped boxes and the only labeled cabin found in quantity. This example used by Fact. 545, 9th PA is from the mid 1880’s.
[3450]
Dancing negroes get amateurs excited but there have been a few dozen of these offered on eBay. [3451]
The second most common log cabin shaped box
is this, portraying a negro family in a donkey cart.
The example pictured is not the one in the NCM collection. [w0000]
I’ve seen more than a dozen of these boxes over the years, but never one in good condition. All appear to have severe water-staining and often other damage as if they were involved in a long-ago warehouse disaster. [w0000]
Individual logs of alternating color used for both walls and roof in 1883 by Fact. 1877, 1st Dist. of Illinois. The string is believed to have been
tied to a lock or key.
[3456]
Inside label depicts an aggressive salesman.
[3461]
Logs printed on a standard NWH (nailed wood with hardware) box make for a less expensive package.
Cigars made in Fact. 59, 1st Ohio 1880’s.
[3464]
Spanish hand made cigars are made with only filler and wrapper, no binder. Cigars made with moulds are three-parters and were not then considered hand made. They are today.
[3465]
Very unusual 25/5 packing used on an NWH Christmas box in the 1883-84 holiday season.
[3466]
Printed box with logs extending. B.R. Hahn, Bay City, Mich., a member of the Izaac Walton League, intended this patented box to be reused as
a bird house when emptied. 1926
Fact. 693, 1st Michigan [3458]
1930’s red cedar 50/13 cabin with design routed or stamped into the wood. This is found with peaked roof and with flat roof. Not especially rare, but attractive. Usually found without labels. Box by Peterson Bros. 165 Elizabeth, Chicago. [3457]
Far more rare than the 50/13 is the 100/26
double-wide version of the red cedar
depression era novelty cabin.
[3463]
Very rare WHITE LOG cabin made by Wilholt & Bruza in Los Angeles for Universal Cigar Co., a local distributor. Only chimney and totally
removable roof I’ve seen on a log cabin box.
[10226]
The out-of-scale door and window are not original to the box, drawn on, perhaps by a youngster.
Fact. 76, 6th Dist. California 1930’s
[10228]
Match cover, pencil and counter checks from the Oakland WHITE LOG a California chain of coffee shops from the days when hamburgers were 30¢,
pie was 20¢ and coffee a nickel.
[10995]
Distinctive coffee shop, a natural for a log cabin
shaped custom cigar box. 1930’s.
[White log 3]
One of the chains, where a tall downtown
office building was built in the airspace
above the coffee shop after they refused to
sell their corner location and distinctive shape.
[White log 2]
This distinctive “log cabin” is a Cuban bohio (native house) created in the late 1900’s to hold up to 250 COHIBA brand cigars.
[wBohio4]
The bohio design was used exclusively by the Castro government, usually Fidel himself, as gifts
to heads of state and other foreign dignitaries.
[wBohio]
It wasn’t until two years after I had the opportunity to buy one, that I learned what they were.
Alas, not in the NCM collection.
[wBohio3]
