This is a discussion of the two primary approaches to rolling long filler cigars:
The same was true of parts made for machines: components, bolts, screws. True artisans ("engineers") crafted individual components. Each hand-crafted bolt, for example, was guaranteed to fit only the nut that was hand-crafted to match it. There was no standardization of dimensions or thread pitch; no assumption of interchangeability.
[Simon Winchester: The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. Harper Perennial (2019).]
Throughout Europe and the U.S., up until the mid 19th century, cigars were sold individually or in ribbon-tied bundles of random count, and were shipped in barrels. The cause for changing that practice was the U.S. government's need to easily tax them (i.e. to know how many cigar were contained in a shipment, without the need to tediously count every cigar held in each random container--bundle, bale, chest or barrel.)
The Cigar Box
In 1830, the banking firm of H. Upmann began shipping cedar-boxed cigars from Havana, Cuba to London, for use by its Board of Directors. While these are the earliest documented cigar boxes, the popularity of which eventually led the H. Upmann banking firm to go into the cigar business, the use of boxes remained limited.
[Because of the need to raise taxes to pay for the Civil War in the US...] "The Revenue Act of 1864 tried to solve the problem by requiring all cigars to be packed in "boxes or bundles," but feisty cigar makers harassed inspectors with odd lots, turning record keeping into a nightmare. With Lincoln's strong support, the laws of 1865 resolved the problem of counting by requiring all cigars, foreign or domestic, to be packed in wooden boxes containing 25, 50, 100 or 250 cigars, giving IRS agents somewhere to paste a stamp proving taxes had been paid. By the end of the war, cigar boxes were everywhere: the federal solution to a very taxing problem."
www.cigaraficionado.com
The cigar box proved to be a superb advertising platform for cigar factories (or more specifically, cigar marketeers who branded and hawked numerous "brands" of otherwise identical cigars as distinctive products), leading to the explosion of cigar box art as well as the development of the open-box display humidor.
In the mid 19th century (different dates are cited by various sources) Gustav Bock chose to tackle the issue of counterfeit cigars sold in legitimate cigar boxes, by applying a (then) difficult to duplicate, paper cigar band to each of his Cuban factory cigars.
www.ecured.cu
But the widespread use of cigar bands did not take off until the widespread use of cigar boxes.
The Birth of Standardized Cigars
In an age before there were even interchangeable, standardized screws and bolts, and before there were expectations of fitting a set number of cigars into a mass-produced box, there was simply no need for a batch of cigars to be identical (ring, length, shape). Enter the box, and quite suddenly, the same number of cigars must properly fit. This gave birth to cigar measuring devices: the ring gauge, and the calibrated tuck cutter--both tools designed to assist in yielding box-compatible cigars in quantity. Shape variability was addressed by requiring cigar rollers to fit their bunches into molds of identical ring and shape--yet another measuring device. And with these measuring and molding tools, even semi-skilled cigar rollers could easily meet the high standard of cigars rolled by multiple people fitting interchangeably into a fixed size, mass-produced box.
Of course, in addition to solving the boxing problem (for the benefit of taxation), measuring and standardizing cigars lowered labor costs, since less skilled rollers could be employed. Today, we consider a Cuban torcedor, using these measuring and molding devices (and sometimes also using a Lieberman bunching device) to be highly skilled. But observing a true torcedor or torcedora artisan rolling truly beautiful cigars in the absence of those industrial tools is a different experience. I should note that the blade of a tuck cutter, as well as the chaveta and rolling board, are useful tools that, in themselves, are not industrial tools, but are artisanal tools.
Standardization Summary: The enforcement of taxation led to widespread use of standardized boxes, which in turn led to the need for standardized cigars. This was achieved with the use of standardized measuring and molding devices.
Home-rolled Cigars
For many of us, our experience with fine cigars began with the beautiful displays of open-box cigars within the humidor of a tobacconist shop. All of the cigars within a particular box were of identical ring, length and shape. Even the direction of wrapper application ("right-handed" or "left-handed", determined by which half of the wrapper leaf was applied) was always the same for the entire box, or for at least each layer of cigars within the box. Each cigar within a box bore an impressive (or sober) cigar band applied at precisely the same distance from the head. All of this is now expected of a fine cigar, and all of it is designed with its marketing (advertising) value in mind.
Bob
- cigars that are free-hand rolled, in only approximate size and shape
- factory-style cigars that assume a need for standardization
The same was true of parts made for machines: components, bolts, screws. True artisans ("engineers") crafted individual components. Each hand-crafted bolt, for example, was guaranteed to fit only the nut that was hand-crafted to match it. There was no standardization of dimensions or thread pitch; no assumption of interchangeability.
[Simon Winchester: The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. Harper Perennial (2019).]
Throughout Europe and the U.S., up until the mid 19th century, cigars were sold individually or in ribbon-tied bundles of random count, and were shipped in barrels. The cause for changing that practice was the U.S. government's need to easily tax them (i.e. to know how many cigar were contained in a shipment, without the need to tediously count every cigar held in each random container--bundle, bale, chest or barrel.)
The Cigar Box
In 1830, the banking firm of H. Upmann began shipping cedar-boxed cigars from Havana, Cuba to London, for use by its Board of Directors. While these are the earliest documented cigar boxes, the popularity of which eventually led the H. Upmann banking firm to go into the cigar business, the use of boxes remained limited.
[Because of the need to raise taxes to pay for the Civil War in the US...] "The Revenue Act of 1864 tried to solve the problem by requiring all cigars to be packed in "boxes or bundles," but feisty cigar makers harassed inspectors with odd lots, turning record keeping into a nightmare. With Lincoln's strong support, the laws of 1865 resolved the problem of counting by requiring all cigars, foreign or domestic, to be packed in wooden boxes containing 25, 50, 100 or 250 cigars, giving IRS agents somewhere to paste a stamp proving taxes had been paid. By the end of the war, cigar boxes were everywhere: the federal solution to a very taxing problem."
The Art of Cigar Boxes | Cigar Aficionado
Four-Square Masterpieces Cigar-Box Labels Once Served as the Ultimate Image Makers for a Good Smoke | Cigar Aficionado
www.cigaraficionado.com
The cigar box proved to be a superb advertising platform for cigar factories (or more specifically, cigar marketeers who branded and hawked numerous "brands" of otherwise identical cigars as distinctive products), leading to the explosion of cigar box art as well as the development of the open-box display humidor.
In the mid 19th century (different dates are cited by various sources) Gustav Bock chose to tackle the issue of counterfeit cigars sold in legitimate cigar boxes, by applying a (then) difficult to duplicate, paper cigar band to each of his Cuban factory cigars.
Gustav Bock Mûller - EcuRed
But the widespread use of cigar bands did not take off until the widespread use of cigar boxes.
The Birth of Standardized Cigars
In an age before there were even interchangeable, standardized screws and bolts, and before there were expectations of fitting a set number of cigars into a mass-produced box, there was simply no need for a batch of cigars to be identical (ring, length, shape). Enter the box, and quite suddenly, the same number of cigars must properly fit. This gave birth to cigar measuring devices: the ring gauge, and the calibrated tuck cutter--both tools designed to assist in yielding box-compatible cigars in quantity. Shape variability was addressed by requiring cigar rollers to fit their bunches into molds of identical ring and shape--yet another measuring device. And with these measuring and molding tools, even semi-skilled cigar rollers could easily meet the high standard of cigars rolled by multiple people fitting interchangeably into a fixed size, mass-produced box.
Of course, in addition to solving the boxing problem (for the benefit of taxation), measuring and standardizing cigars lowered labor costs, since less skilled rollers could be employed. Today, we consider a Cuban torcedor, using these measuring and molding devices (and sometimes also using a Lieberman bunching device) to be highly skilled. But observing a true torcedor or torcedora artisan rolling truly beautiful cigars in the absence of those industrial tools is a different experience. I should note that the blade of a tuck cutter, as well as the chaveta and rolling board, are useful tools that, in themselves, are not industrial tools, but are artisanal tools.
Standardization Summary: The enforcement of taxation led to widespread use of standardized boxes, which in turn led to the need for standardized cigars. This was achieved with the use of standardized measuring and molding devices.
Home-rolled Cigars
For many of us, our experience with fine cigars began with the beautiful displays of open-box cigars within the humidor of a tobacconist shop. All of the cigars within a particular box were of identical ring, length and shape. Even the direction of wrapper application ("right-handed" or "left-handed", determined by which half of the wrapper leaf was applied) was always the same for the entire box, or for at least each layer of cigars within the box. Each cigar within a box bore an impressive (or sober) cigar band applied at precisely the same distance from the head. All of this is now expected of a fine cigar, and all of it is designed with its marketing (advertising) value in mind.
Bob
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