If it ran, walked, crept, crawled, swam or flew, it is found on a cigar label. Every type and color of bird sold cigars at one time or another. This exhibit is a selection from the NCM collection. More eagles can be seen in the Patriotic exhibit; more barnyard birds in the Barnyard exhibit. Wild and Domestic animals are found elsewhere as are creatures of the sea.
It’s fitting to begin a display of flying critters with the two most popular cigar brands featuring birds.
Birds on Labels
A National Cigar Museum Exhibit
© Tony Hyman
The most heavily advertised bird brand belonged to Straiton & Storm. First used as their trade mark logo in the 1860’s, OWL and its successors will be the subject of their own exhibit. Fact. 47, 9th PA 1904
[10345]
Straiton & Storm became General Cigar in 1917, but OWL remained a leading brand. Cigars made in Fact. 233 1st PA 1920.
[10344]
General introduced WHITE OWL to compete with OWL in early 1918. One sold for 7¢ the other for 8¢. OWL was dropped from General’s line in November 1921. General Cigar Co., Fact. 160, 12th PA 1923.
[10346]
Pictured is one of the best known WHITE OWL boxes, used during the late 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Fact. 522, 5th New Jersey, 1940.
[10343]
Eagles are the earliest birds found on U.S.
boxes. Cigars by John Krohe, NYC, 1874.
[5502]
Catalog card missing. C1900.
[5547]
Strange birds with human heads. Do they represent the retailer’s children? Fact. 555, with 140 rollers, one of Chicago’s five biggest factories c1890
[5534]
Charming box. Speckled in the name usually means the cigars were made of speckled tobacco, popular at that time. Made in Fact. 63, 9th PA by National Cigar Mfg. Co., West Manchester, PA, 1899.
[5537]
A languishing lady and PEACOCK on a book shaped box with gilded edge, made in the early 1880’s in
Fact. 1029, 9th PA.
[5511]
Black and gold ink on a classic NWH box made by the giant 1000 roller Sutro & Newmark Fact. 412, 3rd Dist NYC in the mid 1880’s.
[5510]
HOMING PIGEON made in Fact. 63, 9th Dist. PA,
the 15 man factory of Denah Gable, York, in 1881. Packed in an NWH with a colored liner and
lovely inner.
[5506]
Made in 1913 by William Griffin in Nevada City’s Fact. 25, 1st District of California. Label by
Cole Litho, Chicago.
[5544]
A literary bird from Evansville, Indiana, in 1922 by the Val Roma Cigar Co., 10th and W. Franklin.
Fact. 194, 6th Dist. Indiana.
[5546]
Red is a standout color for a normally black bird. This cardboard box held 100 cheap Depression-era cigars made in fact. 86, 18th Dist. Ohio, operated by Fred Kochendorfer, Newark, Ohio. 1934
[5552]
A red bird that should be red advertises cigars made in Fact. 371 Indianapolis, Indiana by
W.J. Steckbeck & Sons in 1948.
[5526]
Distinctive four color label would stand out in any cigar counter. Label by F.M. Howell. Cigars by
Charles Doubek, Menominee, Mich in
Factory 95, 4th District. 1904
[5522]
Very different bird label also from 1904,
used by W.K. Gresh & Sons for cigars made
in their Norristown, PA, Fact. 1839, 1st PA/
[5517]
Two colors used effectively on this 1904 box by David Goodling, Fact. 1367, 9th Loganville, PA.
[5521]
Jim Crow had more than one meaning in 1872 when this distinctive two color label was used by Foxen, Bristol & Co., Fact. 424, 1st Michigan. Cigars made for R.H. Parker & Co., Sharon, PA., a town
with three cigar makers. Hmmm??? [5504]
Birds of every color, including one symbolizing Peace and Purity issued in the earliest days of World War One. Fact. 223, 2nd Dist. Wisconsin.
[9842]
Three colors make a dramatic label depicting
an odd albino crow for an Oregon factory
number 13 around 1912.
[5515]
Hall Brothers in Wells, Minn. (Fact. 1000)
used this lovely and dramatic box in 1934.
[5553]
One of my favorite end label designs. Custom
design, not just a repeat of the inner like
most outer labels.
[5554]
Oval designs were not common in 1878 when this lovely swan was used by Francis Leggett & Co., Fact. 401, 3rd Dist. NYC.
[5527]
A half century later, white swans still appeared on boxes. Fact. 711, 1st OPA, 1932, owner unknown.
[5529]
Swans didn’t have to be white. Label from
label catalog.
[5531]
With minor emblemic modification, the red
swans become blue. Labels could be
modified to suit any buyer’s whim.
Used by unknown owner of Fact. 38, Minn.
[5530]
Certainly one of the most bizarre named boxes featuring a bird. Excuse the crudeness but I
can’t help picturing what it’s about to do on the
bread. Cigars by O’Brien Bros. Fact. 4, IRD 34, Chatham, Ontario. c.1886 [9102]
A puffin puffin’ on a cigar makes for a delightful play on words on this simple monochrome label from around 1912. Cigars by El Francisco Cigar Co., Fact. 475, 9th PA in Wrightsville.
[11029]
1960’s cardboard box-wrapped box with parrot theme. Permit 121, Pennsylvania.
[6297]
Jacobs, Holdtzinger & Co. of Windsor, PA, Fact. 492, 1st PA, made this distinctive box in the 1930’s. Its four colors testifies to the effectiveness of a simple design used to attract the eye.
[5551]
In stark contrast to the previous is this book shaped box of 10 with its ornate colorful embossed label from around 1914. Catalog card incomplete.
The slogan “Catches the Worm” is of questionable
effectiveness inducing a smoker to try one. [5533]
Odd anthropomorphic birds in tuxedos with dickies.
“They are singers, alright” doesn’t have meaning as a slogan.today. Fact. 925, 9th PA owned by
Charles W. Snyder, Yoe. c1913.
[5542]
Odd early subtly trichromatic flock of birds used by Landauer & Kaim, whose 250 roller factory 106
was located on east 64th in NYC in 1886.
[5505]
It’s difficult to find a type of bird that doesn’t
appear on a cigar box. This Ohio turn-of-the-century box of 250 cigars is not in the NCM collection.
[w0000]
Rare paper label tin 25/up with a dramatic bird label.
Cigars by G.A. Strobeck, Fact. 563, Red Lion, PA.
Not in the NCM collecttion.
[w 0000]
Bird parts! Cigars made for C.D. Slater of Reading, PA, featuring Elias Hartz, a local weatherman who forcast weather by the color of a goose breast bone. Unknown cigar maker, Fact. 358, 1st PA. 1910
[5555]
More bird parts. Same exact box is found with the name EAGLE HEAD. Fact. 926 was owned by D.A. Shriver who employed 3 rollers in Manchester, PA
in 1886. Back strip advises retailers to tear the lid off and hang it as an advertising sign. [9165]
This barnyard bird belongs with other barnyard critters in another exhibit. Watch for it there.
By Louis Ihlenfeldt, Springfield, Ill, Fact. C25, 8th District, the earliest box I’ve seen with a C as part
of the ID. Dates between 1936-1941. [5538]
Don’t believe anything you read on a cigar box. The label clearly says made by Fernandez Brothers in Tampa, but the ID (the only trustworthy part of a box) says they were made by P.H. Linsen, in Factory 2, New Orleans. [5539]
