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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Cuban master roller finishing near-100-foot-long cigar!Los Angeles, May 8 – Punch has never been more popular. The famed clown figure has been as much a symbol of cigars in British and Italian communities as the American Indian has been for Americans through the centuries. And that popularity came through in a recent auction of a brightly-colored Punch figure from the 19th Century. An 18-inch high counter statute of Punch brought a remarkable $207,000 at auction last month at the Morphy Spring Toy Auction held in Denver, Colorado. With its almost intact-paintwork, the figure (illustrated on the home page) dates from around 1885 and was made by the well-known firm of William DeMuth & Co. This figure is made of zinc rather than wood and was reported to be one of the best-kept examples of this type of figure and relatively few are known to still be in existence. It isn’t the highest price for a Punch figure, of course. Last year, a wooden Punch that stood about five feet high went for the astonishing price of $542,000 in an auction last October. But “inch for inch,” the latest auction brought a higher price! The strong auction results for the Punch figure at the Morphy Spring Toy Auction were mirrored at the Antique Toy & Americana sale in New Hope, Pennsylvania, at which two carved Indians greatly exceeded their pre-sale projections. The first was a 64-inch tall Indian in full headdress holding a tomahawk in one hand and a tobacco leaf in the other. Expected to bring $12-15,000, it sold for $77,000! A second Indian figure, this one of an Indian scout, was expected to sell for about $12,000, but was sold for $24,200. Record put out of reach for Cuba’s Cueto: Jose Castelar Cairo, the Cuban cigar master known as “Cueto,” may be able to finish his longest cigar ever this week during the International Tourism Fair in Havana. But it won’t be another record-setter. The 64-year-old Cairo set out to top his own best of 20.41 m (66-11 1/2) from 2005. He had previously set Guinness-certified “world records” of 11.04 m (36-2 3/4) in 2001 and 14.86 m (48-9) in 2003 in addition to his 2005 giant. But word came this week that the Guinness panel had certified the world-record status of a 41.2 m (135-2) behemoth rolled last year by Puerto Rican Patricio Pena. A report from the Associated Press indicated that Cueto’s finished cigar will reach about 30 meters (98 feet). He’s been working on it with five assistants since last Saturday, using about 93 pounds of tobacco leaves yielding a ring gauge of more than 128 or two inches in diameter! He’s expected to display the finished cigar on Friday. “I’m working to take it to the maximum,” he told the AP on Tuesday, “We’ll be back in two years with a longer one.” |
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Did you know?
“"Sandwich" filler includes both long and short pieces, with the long pieces folded over to form the "sandwich."
