Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars - THE CIGAR LIFE . . . AS LIVED MORE THAN 150 YEARS AGO

THE CIGAR LIFE . . . AS LIVED MORE THAN 150 YEARS AGO

THE CIGAR LIFE . . . AS LIVED MORE THAN 150 YEARS AGO

Stunning burl and silver cigar service accessories from The Gilded Age and before

Los Angeles, November 16 – “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

So said the English romanticist John Keats in Endymion in 1817.

“Its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness.”

So it is with two spectacular items on the auction block on eBay, each offering a splendid example of the importance of presentation in the 19th Century and the respect offered to the cigar as a part of the high life of the upper classes.

• From France or England is a sensational cigar “center” of burl veneer and bronze with a lion’s head on the front (pictured above). A mechanical lever opens both sides of the 12-inch high box to reveal slots for nine cigars on each side (18 total).

The lion’s head in the center of the front panel has an interior cutter for the cigars (!) and a small dish below to hold the cuttings or to hold matches (or both). In addition, there are two sandpaper-like striking pads on the base for lighting the matches!

Bronze feet adorn the bottom and a bronze finial finishes the top. There is some wear, but this is a magnificent piece that undoubtedly adorned a noble home. The starting price is $499.99, but I have rarely seen anything even comparable to this in terms of beauty and novelty. The auction for this items ends on November 21.

• From Tiffany in New York comes the second piece, a .925 Sterling Silver cigar holder and oil lamp of near-mint quality, dating from the Civil War period.

This holder, topped with an oil lamp which would have been used in the 1860s to light cigars as well as a room, features three cherub-like figures around the edges of this circular piece which measures 6 1/2 inches in diameter. The three figures stand on pylons which form the feet for the holder, with a bottom circular (solid) tray raised a half-inch off the ground and a second tray three inches higher with circular, wire-style cutouts for up to 28 cigars of up to 48 ring to be held vertically.

With the lamp, it is 10 inches tall and every bit a celebration of cigars. It has the “Tiffany & Co.” mark on the underside and is priced like it, with a starting bid at $9,500 with the auction also ending next Sunday. Stunning and sensational!

Cigars on Ice?
Auctions of old H. Upmann (Havana) jars are fairly common on eBay, but we saw an item last week that gave us the “chills.”

An H. Upmann Ice Bucket!

We checked out the origin with our friend Simon Chase of Hunters & Frankau of London, importers of Havana cigars into England for many years. And, yes, it is a real Upmann jar, converted to use for ice!

“The Upmann ice buckets are far from being new;” wrote Chase. “If I recall correctly, the last one left our warehouse in 1989 or thereabouts.

“Back in the early ‘80s, we had a good market for the 50(-count) jars of Upmann Coronas and Petit Coronas, then the price got too steep, and finally Cubatabaco discontinued them. It was Nick Freeman’s idea (the late chairman of Hunters & Frankau) to convert them into ice buckets by producing a moulded plastic inner, which we sent out to our restaurant/bar customers to convert the jars when they were empty (of cigars).

“We also got the Cubans to ship a few empties, so we could sell them just as buckets. It was a fun idea, and they were popular even though it was quite a performance to get the lid off when you wanted to get to the ice.”

The first one we’ve ever seen on eBay was pretty popular too, drawing five bids and a hammer price of $218.50 at the end of the five-day offer.

Steals and Deals:
One of the highest-profile brands at present is the Altadis USA version of Trinidad. Now available in both natural and the new maduro wrapper, this is a marvelous Dominican-made blend which we thought highly enough of to rank in our list of the top full-bodied brands available in the U.S., at no. 26.

Now, giant J-R Cigars has reduced its prices on the natural-wrapped line to match its aggressive pricing on the maduros:

> Belicosos (6 1/8 x 50), were $270, now $216 for 25;
> Chuchills (7 x 50), were $216, now 180;
> Mini Belicosos (5 x 52), were $225, now $180;
> Robustos (5 x 50), were $190, now $152, and
> Toros (6 x 50), were $200, now $160 in the best deal of the lot.

Any of these would be exquisite gifts for the holidays, not to mention J-R’s expanded line of cigars in classy tins of three or four. Five sizes of Trinidads are offered, including the Belicoso and Toro sizes! Or you can get meaty 50-ring-plus models of Montecristo, Montecristo Platinum or Romeo y Julieta and keep the tin for a business card case. Now that’s for the smoker who has everything!

Coming tomorrow: A British website blows the cover off the so-called “science” behind secondhand smoke. Tell your friends: this is a must-read!
~ Rich Perelman

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