THE ART OF THE CIGAR LABEL

[El Presidente]

Great read 

 

THE ART OF THE CIGAR LABEL 5/1/2006 https://www.cigarcitymagazine.com/home/the-art-of-the-cigar-label     Tampa's Colorful Cigar Labels are More Than Just Pretty Pictures Cigar labels are everywhere lately. T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and shower curtains are decorated with images all too familiar to native Tampans. It's one way to connect with and embrace our city's legacy as the "Cigar City."    Whether adorned by an attractive woman or a famous writer, Cigar labels jump out at the viewer. However, cigar labels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are also rich in symbolic imagery. In one historian's words, Labels can reflect "the tobacco industry's important influence on the economic, social, and political climate of Cuba and …Tampa" and are often "windows to the past," depicting contemporary events, celebrities, and social life. Cigar labels are among the earliest forms of popular advertising, illustrating the country's shift from an industrial economy to one based on consumer goods. Crossroads: Transportation, printing, and the consumer economy Before the Civil War, cigars were only a tiny part of overall tobacco consumption, easily outpaced by snuff and hand-rolled cigarettes. Tobacco farmers sold their products in small bundles, tied with a cloth ribbon, to local traders and dry goods stores in and around their local community. There was no need to label cigars individually, no need for competitive advertising. After the Civil War, however, the cigar and advertising industries would change to meet the demands of a new American marketplace.  In 1865 Congress passed the Tax Revenue Act requiring standardized packaging and tax identification numbers for all tobacco products. Cigars were boxed and stamped with a factory number to identify the manufacturer, a tax district number identifying the city of origin, and the quantity in the box. Standardized packaging and labeling aided sales and worked well in an emerging consumer-based economy. By 1889, 61,272 miles of rail lines connected the continent, revolutionizing the flow of people and goods throughout the country. Mileage in the South tripled as Henry Plant completed his rail line in 1884. Consumer goods–like tobacco, soap, or clothing–could now be shipped thousands of miles away from the factories that produced them to be displayed in shop windows in dozens of American cities. By the last quarter of the 20th Century, cigar boxes were displayed - as they are today - with the lid open. Labels became a primary means of attracting customers. The Need for Advertising The railroad connected America like never before. People and goods traveled quicker and more frequently to seemingly distant places within the American landscape. More people were living in cities with more products and choices than in rural communities. Productivity was on the rise as well. Goods were made cheaply and more efficiently, pre-packaged, and shipped to new, far-away markets. These rapid and complex changes in the American marketplace required manufacturers to develop a new strategy to entice consumers to buy their products. Advertising was the answer. Before advertising, "tobacco was tobacco, and soap was soap." Using copyrights, patents, and brand names, manufacturers could make their products seem unique or different from their competitors, and advertising reinforces a product's perceived unique qualities. Department stores and chain stores met the demand of growing urban populations. For example, Woolworth operated about 600 outlets by 1913. Window shopping soon became a popular pastime, and window displays were a primary form of advertising, second only to print ads. Instead of stacked on shelves behind the counter, cigar boxes were displayed with their lids open. Capturing a customer's attention became as crucial as the quality of the cigar. Alois Senefelder, inventor of stone lithography and an early lithographic hand press. The Evolution of the Stone Lithography Lithography, or "chemical printing," revolutionized the printing industry. With lithography, it was possible to print hundreds of duplicate copies from a single image drawn directly onto a stone without reducing the quality of the image. Alois Senefelder, a German printer, invented stone lithography in 1796. It is a planographic process, meaning images are not carved or cut into the printing stones. Instead, lithography is based on "the natural antipathy between water and grease." The artist draws an image directly on the stone using a grease pen or crayon. Like all paper printing processes, the artist must draw a reverse image. Once the artwork is complete, the stone is doused with a slightly acidic solution called an etch. Next, the stone is rinsed with water; the acid solution sticks to the grease drawing but is washed away from the rest of the stone, leaving only the image to be printed. With the image set into the stone, a roller of black ink is applied to the entire surface. The artwork, created with a grease crayon and placed into the stone by the acid solution, retains the black ink while the rest of the dampened stone repels it. The stone is now ready for printing. Chromolithography follows a similar process, except instead of one stone, several different stones comprise a single print. With chromolithography, each section of the image must be dissected by color. The different colors make up the picture itself, and complex prints could require as many as twenty different stones. A printer must know how each color will work together, in what order they should be applied, and finally, the print must remain in perfect registration so that colors do not bleed onto one another. Outer labels were pasted onto boxes at the factory. The lithographic printing industry in the United States grew in tandem with Tampa's cigar industry. While Ybor City was a center of hand-rolled cigars dependent on immigrant labor, New York was the hub of German lithography and lithographic printing houses. Many Germans settled in the Northeast United States, establishing printing houses in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. In 1860, 60 lithographic firms in the United States employed 80 people. By 1890, there were 700 lithographic printing houses, employing 8,000 people. By 1890, the New York City directory listed 130 lithographic printing houses. Chromolithography's ability to inject vibrant color into everyday scenes and images made it ideal for advertising. Color labels were affixed to everything from peach crates to cigar boxes. According to one historian, "cigar advertising made up 80 percent of all lithographic printing in the U.S." People had gone, in the words of a 19th-century lithographer, "picture crazy." Without a doubt, chromolithography became "the principal color medium for advertising" in America, coinciding perfectly with the development of mass-produced consumer goods.   La Eva Cigar Label by A. Amo & Co., Tampa, FL Label Themes Label themes vary widely. Generally speaking, any image that might appeal to men was printed on labels to help promote cigars. Thousands of different labels were printed for hundreds of factories in Ybor City, Tampa, and West Tampa, depicting everything from pretty girls to Abraham Lincoln. Sex Appeal For obvious reasons, sex appeal is one of the most popular themes found in cigar art. Perhaps nothing grabs a man's attention like a scantily clad woman, and cigar labels are full of them. To entice their primarily male customers, manufacturers used sexy celebrities of the day like Julia Marlowe and Fanny Davenport, both famous stage actresses. Tampa Beauties, Tobacco Girl, and Miss Tampa all feature attractive young ladies, and hundreds of other labels feature women as goddesses, angels, cowgirls, princesses, temptresses, or housewives. Women of cigar labels ranged from innocent or demure to sultry or pornographic. Half-dressed women were common, and a few early labels featured completely nude women. Often, attractive women were only part of a label's message. Many labels featured women, while eye-catching, were filled with symbolic imagery. In these allegorical labels, mechanical gears, bales of tobacco, maps, and ships were often pictured in the background or margins. At the same time, women dressed in flowing Roman togas appeared in the foreground. Symbols and symbolic imagery were common in works of art to convey more profound meaning. Traditional symbols such as musical instruments, fruit, trees, and geometric shapes like triangles and circles have been used in Western art since biblical times. The cigar label art is no exception. La Gran Via by A. Amo & Co., Tampa, FL The La Gran Via label, printed for A. Amo and Company, has several dual-layered images. A woman standing in front of the ocean holds two laurels. She is surrounded by eight symbolic images: a train, a ship, a globe, wheat, tobacco, a camera, a harp, and an artist's pallet. Why did the artist choose these items? What do wheat and a harp have to do with cigars or each other? The answer is that the images are symbolic; they represent more significant themes and ideas. The woman is shown holding two laurels commonly associated with victory. When featured on cigar labels, laurels suggest the quality of the cigar brand. Wheat, on the ground next to the woman, often denotes fertile earth or abundance, while harps are associated with mortality and protection. Trains, ships, and mechanical gears, depicted in the La Gran Via label, can represent trade, industry, or commerce, and the camera is also likely a symbol of technological advance or progress. The most intriguing symbols are the woman's red hat, a symbol of revolution, and the triangle centered just behind her head, probably a Masonic reference. Symbolic images like these and others, such as anchors, cherubs, children, crowns, angels, wreaths, coins, crosses, and stars, are found in hundreds of cigar labels. However, the greater meaning associated with these symbols needs to be addressed. The woman is shown holding two laurels commonly associated with victory. When featured on cigar labels, laurels suggest the quality of the cigar brand. Wheat, on the ground next to the woman, often denotes fertile earth or abundance, while harps are associated with mortality and protection. Trains, ships, and mechanical gears, depicted in the La Gran Via label, can represent trade, industry, or commerce, and the camera is also likely a symbol of technological advance or progress. The most intriguing symbols are the woman's red hat, a symbol of revolution, and the triangle centered just behind her head, probably a Masonic reference. Symbolic images like these and others, such as anchors, cherubs, children, crowns, angels, wreaths, coins, crosses, and stars, are found in hundreds of cigar labels. However, the greater meaning associated with these symbols needs to be addressed. Captain Alvarez, registered in 1916 and this 1928 Ivanhoe label provide a touch of manly romanticism. “Romantic” labels featured everything from Roman warriors to heroic world leaders like Charles the Great. Romantic Imagery Sex appeal was one-way cigar manufacturers could grab the attention of their mostly male clientele, but it wasn't the only way. Many labels offer romanticized images of Native Americans, nature, mythology, or nobility. These "Romantic" labels depict a fictionalized version of a time, place, or person. Pirates like the one featured on Captain Alvarez's label or the knight in armor featured on the Ivanhoe brand conjure the romantic or heroic ideals associated with swashbuckling pirates or "knights in shining armor." As one author describes, "historical reality seldom had anything to do with pictures on cigar labels." These romanticized stereotypes created a fantasy world designed to appeal to a male consumer. Americana Collectors often place trains, ships, maps, famous buildings, and family scenes into separate sub-categories. However, using such images constitutes a general theme in cigar label art: celebrating American culture or Americana. The railroad system was revolutionizing America; every year, new tracks and connections were made. Between 1869 and 1900, over 200,000 miles of track were laid. It is no wonder that cigar labels celebrated this achievement. Images of sports cars, trains, and ships appealed to consumers because they celebrated American ingenuity, industry, and culture.   Even William Shakespeare, “The Bard of Avon” was used to market cigars in this Sanchez and Haya Label. Mozart, Mark Twain, and Cervantes all had a label named in their honor. Celebrity Cigar labels may be the earliest known use of celebrity endorsement to sell a product. Images of writers, actors, vaudevillian performers, politicians, generals, philosophers, judges, explorers, kings, queens, and literary characters have all been used to sell cigars. Collectors may also subdivide this category into writers, philosophers, or generals. Indeed, there are so many–from Karl Marx to Charles the Great–that the possibilities are nearly endless. Patriotism By 1895, the United States was readying itself for war in Cuba. Cigar manufacturers quickly capitalized on the nationalism and patriotism surrounding the Spanish American War (1898-1902), using patriotic images on their labels to sell cigars. Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, Cuban revolutionary leaders, and American and Cuban soldiers all appeared on cigar labels in the years just before and after the war. Little Sammies, for example, featuring the Statue of Liberty flanked by two twin Uncle Sams, captured the patriotic spirit of war. The Pinar Del Rio label is another example of a patriotic theme, though more subtly illustrated than Little Sammies, employing previously mentioned allegories and symbols. The label features a statuesque Lady Liberty holding a red, white, and blue coat of arms. She extends a laurel, apparently crowning a young Cuban boy dressed in peasant's tattered overalls. The boy rests his hand on a mechanical gear while seated on a bale of tobacco. An inscription behind them reads, "Pinar Del Rio," the tobacco-producing region of Cuba. Through these symbolic images, this label says quite a bit about the perceived relationship between the United States and Cuba at the turn of the century. Patriotic images were common, especially during the brief Spanish-American War. The Treaty Bond label features Napoleon, Jefferson, and a map of the Louisiana Purchase. Gilded Many cigar manufacturers opted for gilded textual labels that issued claims and guarantees. As the techniques of gilding and embossing gained prominence, cigar makers adorned their labels with gold coins or medals and awards conferred by expert judges. Printers would brush labels with bronze leaf or, in very rare cases, with actual gold leaf, giving the embossed image of a coin or medal a bright finish. Lithographers referred to the process as gilding. Textual labels could be pretty straightforward, stating the manufacturer and price of the cigar, or they could make outlandish claims about the health benefits of smoking their product. Many embossed and gilded labels are strikingly ornate and intricate, using coins, crests, official seals, etc. Smaller manufacturers and buckeye shops employing only a few cigar rollers used simpler textual labels than larger firms' elaborate and expensive labels. Collecting Because they were mass-produced, cigar labels are ignored by much of the art community. "The general stereotype in much of the art world is that this is not a true art form - the consequence being that some of our finest artwork produced by stone lithography has, until recently, been completely overlooked." This attitude is beginning to change. Several exhibits and books have cataloged and studied cigar labels and advertising art in general. Among collectors, cigar labels are bought and sold at conventions and through online auction houses like eBay. Some scarce labels could garner several thousand dollars. In Tampa, cigar labels are one-way locals can connect with the area's rich cigar history. However, these small, colorful snapshots reveal more than just the story of Tampa's bygone cigar era; they capture an evolving American nation. This article originally appeared as an exhibit guide for "Art of the Cigar Label," produced by the Ybor City Museum Society in cooperation with the University Of South Florida Libraries Department Of Special Collections. Thanks to David Pullen of the University of South Florida and Thomas Vance. Footnotes are provided upon request. Visit the Ybor City Museum Society website at www.ybormuseum.org CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE- MAY/JUNE 2006     MANNY LETO   Manny Leto is the Executive Director for the Preserve the 'Burg in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also worked as Director of Community Outreach for the Ybor City Museum Society, then became the managing editor of Cigar City Magazine and Director of Marketing for 15 years with the Tampa Bay History Center.

[MrBirdman]

Very interesting read Rob, but I’m not sure it explains that label of Santa drinking martinis with a young boy clad only in a ribbon.

 

More seriously, what struck me is how marketing in general has changed. Brands used to appeal to consumers with common symbols, whereas now they appeal to a lifestyle.