Custom Cigar Bands

For many cigar smokers, the strip of paper around their little stogy is just a piece of trash, to be disposed of with packed around the box. But for others that cigar band is a bit of history - a collector's item that adds considerably to the romance and mystique of smoking.

What band cigar and how has it become so important? As is often the case when it comes to cigars, the story begins in Cuba - early 19th century in Cuba, to be exact, when this island nation had already come to recognize as the cigar capital of the world. At that time cigar packaging was minimal - often no more than a barrel or wooden box with the manufacturer's name inscribed. The cigars were generally left blank. This, not surprisingly, has created a cheat's paradise, in which cheap European cigars were grouped in boxes of "Cuba" marks on them and sold at the national level, to unsuspecting customers who believe do fine imported Cubans.

Gustave Bock, a Dutch immigrant who owned a cigar factory in Cuba in the 1830s, is credited with being the first to place a paper band around his cigars. (Bock "cigar band" were just a paper ring with his signature.)

Many other manufacturers have adopted this practice to the point where, in 1855, exporters of Cuban cigars have been the most use. These bands reduce instances of counterfeiting while giving cigar manufacturers a way to increase name recognition and loyalty.

The dissemination of good practices from Cuba to cigar makers everywhere, and its popularity was encouraged by breakthroughs in printing technology, which developed alongside changes in the economy of Europe and the Americas that favored smoking cigar. Specifically, color printing at low prices (thanks to processes developed in Germany chromolithographic) was widely circulated during the latter part of the century, and paper-embossing followed in the 1880s.

Between the expansion of the cigar industry and new opportunities developed by the printing industry, a "Golden Age" of cigar advertising was almost guaranteed, and that is what followed. cigar manufacturers started to work not only for the manufacture of cigars, but to differentiate their products from others. The late 19th and early 20th century featured design, distinctive cigar box and cigar band works, often produced by artists of great commercial reputation. These bands well wrought featured images of famous people of the era, historical figures, nationalistic images, scenes of nature and animals. As for the stamps today, special bands would be taken to commemorate special events.

And, also, such as stamps, the bands had that combination of ephemerality and workmanship that so often attracts collectors. While they were often well made, they were not meant to last - so they gave collectors a challenge, because baseball card, comic books and toys at low prices later in the 20th century. And they always have a smell of nostalgia, reminding smokers dedicated shared good times with a cigar and a friend.

Children also found these groups attractive because they are often left discarded on the streets during the height of the popularity of cigar smoking. Manufacturers even made "albums" with blank pages in which the person collecting a bunch of cigar can be displayed - the forerunner of those plastic display sheets that every sports-card collector knows so well.

Adding to the growth of the collection of the band, some manufacturers of premium cigars has shot for clients in a number of groups - everything from a set of silverware for children (50 bands) for a Subscription Scientific American (600 groups) to a grand piano (180,000), according to the American Cigar Co. catalog of 1904. (Those of you who used to collect Marlboro Miles in the 1990s should feel dedja  vu right about now.)

After the First World War, cigars fell.