frauds-fakes-fantasies

This exhibit identifies a few of the items frequently mislabeled on ebay. Its goal is to help amateur sellers learn what they have.

Only those items with Catalog Numbers [in brackets] are in the NCM Collection.

Cigarros cigarette boxes

[11705]

[11704]

It says “Cigarros” but that means cigarettes in Cuban. Cigarros is perhaps the single most often mistranslated word by gringoes, so often mistranslated that in the U.S. since the mid 1900’s the word has taken on the mistranslated meaning. On boxes and packages before WWI it correctly means cigarettes. The size of the compartment is the give-away, too small for even the standard 4” to 4½” cigar of 1900.

[11705]

[11704]

Smoking and Chewing tobacco boxes

The box on the left looks somewhat like a cigar box, but if you read the label it says “Tobacco manufactured by...” This sounds elementary to say, but when a box is a cigar box it may say “Cigars manufactured by...” but this says “Tobacco manufactured...” That means the box had smoking or chewing tobacco, not cigars. When in doubt, read the Caution Notice. It will identify the contents as cigars, cigarettes, or tobacco.

WORDS TO LOOK FOR: These words on a box almost always mean it’s not a cigar box: Cut Plug, Cigarettes, Plug, Fine Cut, Virginia, Birdseye, Pipe, Smoking Tobacco, Chewing, Slab, Granulated or Twist. On Cuban packages and boxes, the word “cigarros” means cigarettes.

AN EXCEPTION: “All tobacco cigarettes” is a code phrase for cigarillo type cigars in the 1800’s when tax laws didn’t have provisions for small cigars.

Mass produced humidors

These lovely items say “Cigars” on them but they’re not “cigar boxes,” they’re “cigar humidors.” What’s the difference? Cigar BOXES are retail packages sold full of cigars. HUMIDORS are boxes purchased empty and used to store cigars at home or the office. Is the distinction important? It is to the people who collect boxes. BOX collectors are interested in the ways in which cigars have been SOLD, not just pretty boxes. These oak humidors with the nickel-plated script “Cigars” on top were sold between 1890 and 1920 in shops and mail order, almost always for less than $3. Occasionally you’ll find ads offering them free as a premium to customers who bought 100 or more cigars.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Oak humidor, c.1905 [11084]; [TR] Same humidor open. Metal lining, usually zinc, is a clue it was intended as a humidor [11085]; [BR] Unusual heavily decorated oak humidor, c1905; [BL] Rare humidor covered in thin heavily embossed celluloid. A beautiful box. Note the nickel plated “Cigars” is a stock hardware supply house item, the same as used on the oak humidor seen above it. [11044]

Pyrography (wood-burning) boxes

Made of soft, light colored wood, and often cigar-box shaped, but seldom are these cigar boxes. Made mostly between 1900 and 1960 these overall-patterned boxes were sold in dime stores (are you old enough to remember them?) and hobby shops usually for less than a buck. They were intended to be used as patterns by pyrographers, people whose hobby was creating and embellishing designs on wood using a wood-burning tool much like a sharp tipped soldering iron. Wood-burning was still a popular Cub Scout activity in the 1940’s.

Generations of pre-teen boys and girls got their first wood burning kits as Christmas presents. Kits came with a variety of tips to make different widths and styles of dot, line and chisel mark, so we could embellish these boxes with our own artistic flair.

WARNING: I’ve handled hundreds of these pyrography boxes and discovered three of them that WERE used as cigar boxes, the retailer thus giving the purchaser a handy use for the box once the cigars went up in smoke. HOW DO YOU KNOW whether your pyrographic box is a cigar box?

The same way you know if ANY box, can or jar is a cigar box: it has an ID. If it has one, the ID is usually steam-press stamped into the wood on the bottom in brown ink the same as used to stamp the pattern. For more on ID’s, go <here>.

This style external hinge is typical, weak, and often broken off the wood. They are typically marked “Wizard” and “F. Grammes & Sons, Allentown, PA.”

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TOP TO BOTTOM:

Pyrographic cigar box, used by Pamperin & Wiggenhorn Cigar

Company, Factory 132, 2nd tax district, La Crosse, WI,

c1905; [11087]

Pyrographic box with no ID, like most, c1905;

Hinge typical of nearly all pyrographic boxes.

California Fruit & Candy Boxes

A genuine redwood box, but no ID, no Caution Notice, no tax Class notice and no tax stamp should alert you that it’s not a cigar box. These attractive boxes were used by MISSION PACK and other 1920-1960 mail-order packer-producer-shippers of stuffed and candied California dates and fruits. They can be found in a variety of sizes and shapes usually with California scenes: redwoods, beaches, lakes, mountains, Missions or date palms.

PALL MALL cigarette box

Not a fake, fraud or fantasy, but also not a cigar item. These attractive plastic boxes, which come in cream/ivory as well as green, held PALL MALL cigarettes for the Christmas trade. Exact date is uncertain, either 1930’s or 40’s.

[10245]

Modern “stash box”

A modern “stash box” designed for smoking tobacco, cigars, or other smokable substances. Not old, not a cigar item, of limited interest to decorators and of no interest to collectors.

Tobacco “Jars” that look like boxes

Other fraudulent items involving depictions of negro-Americans include these tobacco humidors, frequently and erroneously called cigar boxes because they’re made in the shape of cigar boxes. These porcelain treasures are of 19th century manufacture, with a good many varieties pictured in Joe Horowitz’s outstanding FIGURAL TOBACCO JARS (Baltimore: FTJ Publications, 1994). These tobacco humidor boxes are found with white guys, black guys, pixies and animals sitting on, lying on or pulling them. They are after-market (gift-shop and tobacconists) items made to hold smoking tobacco, not cigars. Good ones run in the many hundreds of dollars but BEWARE as what you’re most likely to find is a modern cast iron reproduction of a black guy with a snuff box. If your box is wood lined cast iron, it’s a fake. Bright enamel paint should alert the wise buyer to the fact it’s new.

LEFT: Cast iron modern reproduction;

RIGHT: 19th century porcelain: note the delicacy of color in the real humidor box.

Strange LIME KILN CLUB item

Another mystery item similar to the previous can is this LIME KILN CLUB whatchamacallit. There’s no ID, no tax notice, no tax stamp, no caution notice and no R.D. Farmister Tobacco Co. registered in North Carolina in the 30’s or any other time. During the Depression, a lot of cigars and other home made items got sold out of the back of pick-up trucks at farmer’s markets to avoid taxes and government interference. That was illegal and subjected the families doing so to substantial fines so you would be a fool to put your name and address on what you were selling. Though the “maker’s name” and back-box line have been added, the basic label is an 1883 image, part of a large find of this label discovered in the late 1940’s in a Western New York chicken coop being used as wall insulation along with tens of thousands of other labels. This item has no characteristic of a cigar package other than the word cigars. Experts say, “stay away” unless you know what you’re buying and don’t care if it’s a fraud. I’d stay away.

HAMBONE fantasies galore

A common “fantasy” centers around HAMBONE. Hambone was the nickname of Tom Hunley, a folk-wisdom spouting ex-slave interviewed late in his life by a young Memphis editorial cartoonist James Pinckney “J.P.” Alley who was taken by Hunley’s humorously philosophical tone, and turned the old man’s pithy observations on life into a syndicated illustrated column called “Hambone’s Meditations” which debuted in 1916 and was soon followed by two books. When J.P. died in 1934, his son Calvin took over his work, and the Hambone character continued in newspapers until 1968.

Starting in the late 1920’s, two different cigar companies (over time, not at once) were licensed to market cheap cigars under the character’s name and Alley’s illustration. The image on the cigar box label is a satire on Lindberg’s 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic ocean. Boxes are reasonably difficult to find (but not impossible) and sell in the $100± range. For those who want the image, fortunately there is a widely available 7” round cardboard ceiling fan-light hanger designed by Alley and handed out by William C. Frutiger & Co., the Red Lion, PA, owner-maker of the cigar brand based on Alley’s character in the 1920’s and 1930’s. A huge find of these hit the market a few decades ago so one can still be yours for around $25.

Also on the market are at least three “fantasy” items copying Alley’s design: a rectangular blue porcelainized metal sign, a round porcelainized metal sign, and a crudely drawn plate. All are “fantasies” not reproductions as no real signs or plates exist. None of these items are old, cigar, or advertising. Rule of thumb: all signs with metal grommets are modern.

The plate contains a decal of a crude drawing created by an Ohio opportunist in the 1980’s and slowly released through Southern auction houses in a deliberate attempt to defraud customers into believing it authentic. The ugly plate, though marked, is not Buffalo Pottery. In a phone conversation regarding this plate, Buffalo Pottery representatives assured expert pottery dealer Violet Altman that “it’s a fake. We never made anything like it and never marked Buffalo Pottery in block letters.” Buffalo Pottery’s attorney pointed out that their mark was patented and they planned to bring suit against the faker, and offered a substantial reward for his identity. The number 1911 appears on the bottom of the plate, but obviously isn’t a date, as hopeful sellers claim, since the flight happened in 1927 and no time machines existed. Value? If you know where to look you can still buy all these items new for $24.95. But why would you want to?

Turning up twice on ebay is this paint-can lidded rust-bucket with a rare square HAMBONE label. There is no ID, and no tax class notice as required by law, and the idea of packing cigars in a paint can is absurd, even for this inventive industry. This item has no characteristic of a cigar package. Experts say, “stay away” unless you know what you’re buying and don’t care if it’s a fraud. I’d stay away.

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TOP TO BOTTOM:

The original fan or light hanger. [1677]

Porcelainized modern rectangular sign.

Porcelainized modern circular sign.

Crude modern plate.

Fake Buffalo Pottery mark used on the plate.

Strange paint can fake.

English reproduction tins

OCEANIC and DAN PATCH cut plug tins have also been made within the last few decades. Both can be called “reproductions” as they are reasonably accurate copies of tin boxes made about 100 years ago. The lack of proper government markings on the bottom is a giveaway as to their origin.

Fake English tins

These small tins look like they should be cigar tins, but they’re not. The designs are copied from widely available 1920’s era cigar labels but they were made in England in the 1980’s and sold empty in gift shops as novelty items for $3.95. They are NOT old, NOT cigar and NOT advertising. They are properly called “fantasies” not reproductions, as no original tins like these existed. There are two different bottom marks, one of which is illustrated here. They are available by the millions and of no interest to collectors.

NOT FRAUDS, FAKES OR FANTASIES,

BUT ALSO NOT CIGAR BOXES

Cigarette boxes of the Russian silversmiths

These finely crafted small (4.25” x 3.25” x 2.5”) cigar box-shaped cigarette boxes were made in shops of the world-renown Russian silversmiths in the second half of the 19th century. The boxes were modeled after 19th century Cuban cigar brands popular among the Russian wealthy, and contain fine detail, right down to the Russian tax stamp. I’ve seen three different brands, and wouldn’t be surprised to learn more exist.

Rare and expensive in sterling, they were also made in brass. I’ve seen three on ebay, all selling for less than a fifth of the $1500 I paid for this one 25 years ago. Bargains all, but they’re not cigar boxes.

[11702]

Silver and silver plated boxes

[11706] [11712]

Cedar lined humidor made by the Barbour S.P. (Silver Plate) Company International, around 1900. It’s hard to imagine a nicer silver plated box for your cigars. It’s was carried in the Barbour catalog as #3278 so perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to find another. This example is missing the piece of liner wood inset into the lid, otherwise perfect condition. Outside dimensions are 8.5” x 5.5” x 3”.

NCM Home

Sterling 930 silver cigarette box made by an unidentified, possibly European, silver company, probably first quarter of 20th century. Outside dimensions 6.25” x 4.25” x 2.75”. Cedar lined.

[11707] [11708]

It’s a wooden rectangle, but that’s where its similarity to a cigar box ends. This maple chewing tobacco box with its fancy nickel trim and interlocked corners s regarded by collectors as one of the most beautiful tobacco boxes ever made. The creation of P. Lorillard and filled in their Factory 10, 5th District NJ, it dates from the 1880’s. Outside dimensions are 11” x 5.75” x 4.5”. If in doubt as to what the contents were, the Caution Notice clearly reads “The manufacturer of the tobacco herein...”

[11717] [11716]

Tobacco cutters

Highly collectible, some quite valuable, but these are NOT cigar cutters. You’d destroy just about any cigar you tried to cut with one. Until the 1930’s these tools were designed to sit atop the counter wherever plug (chewing) tobacco was sold. Plug was shipped in 8, 12 and 16 ounce long strips, and merchants used these to cut off ounce and half ounce pieces to order. They became obsolete after the introduction of cellophane, when manufacturers began “sanitary wrapping” each ounce of chaw. More than one million cutters were made in more than 100 known styles. The ones illustrated are highly polished and restored, a controversial practice amateurs should never attempt. The imp upper left was originally painted.

Unidentified crock

This mystery crock is 6” across, 4.5” high and unmarked on the bottom. The text refers to one of the top dozen cigar label printers, but what it was used for is unknown.

Since the two that have sold on ebay are the only two known, there is no absolute certainty of their authenticity or age. I took a chance. Opinions are welcome. Knowledge even more so.

[10449]