{"id":418105,"date":"2024-05-31T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/?p=418105"},"modified":"2025-01-27T10:03:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T15:03:31","slug":"cigar-culture-mens-collectibles-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/cigar-culture-mens-collectibles-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigar Culture Was Once the Peak of Masculinity. Now, It\u2019s a Compelling Curiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Clint<\/a>
Clint Eastwood chomping on a cigar<\/a>, 1969, in a portrait by Lawrence Schiller<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s ironic that holding a phallic object between your teeth has been seen as the height of manliness for generations of powerful, heterosexual men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly two centuries, cigar smoking has been associated with wealth, status, strength and, most of all, masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in recent years, the pastime\u2019s reputation has shifted toward the negative, as inhalable nicotine products have been deemed unhealthful for everyone within breathing distance of a plume, and a certain brand of masculinity itself has been reassessed as toxic.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Cigar
Cigar cutters<\/a> arranged in an Art Deco\u2013style<\/a> beauty bar, 1947, in the exhibition \u201cSmoke Signals: Cigar Cutters and Masculine Values<\/a>,\u201d at Miami’s Wolfsonian-FIU museum. \u201cBeauty bars would’ve been used to give a modern look to a drug store to display perfume, lipstick and costume jewelry<\/a>,\u201d says Wolfsonian curator Lea Nickless. \u201cWe thought it would be a fun twist.\u201d Photo by Lynton Gardiner<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Still, cigar culture writ large has left behind an array of splendid innovative smoking accessories<\/a> that collectors covet, whether they continue to smoke in the 21st century or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italian marble ashtrays<\/a> have been repurposed as handsome catchalls for keys and coins; leather or silver cigar cases<\/a> may hold stationery, pens<\/a>, smartphones or cosmetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new exhibition, \u201cSmoke Signal: Cigar Cutters and Masculine Values<\/a>,\u201d on view at the Wolfsonian-FIU museum in Miami through September 29, looks at this phenomenon through the lens of 360 cigar cutters<\/a>, donated by local collector Richard Kronenberg, who has been acquiring them since the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Toy
This toy-horse cigar cutter, 1909, by British silversmith James Samuel Bell<\/a>, is included in “Smoke Signals.”<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe mid-to-late 19th century through the First World War was the golden age of cigar smoking,\u201d says Wolfsonian curator Lea Nickless, noting that in the United States in the early 1900s, \u201c9 out of 10 men smoked a cigar at least once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cutters, which are used to snip the cap off the end of a cigar to make it smokable, came in a huge variety of figurative shapes and styles, offering a surprisingly clear glimpse into the culture of their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
A Bronze cigar cutter embossed with the figure of a woman<\/a> exposing a little ankle, 1890s (left), and a silver-plated cutter shaped like jockey Fred Archer<\/a>, early 1900s (right), both offered by Van den Andern<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were sculptural desk-top cigar cutters for the study<\/a>, discreet pocket versions and jewellike ones worn on pocket-watch<\/a> fobs and attached to vests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devices featured images related to the gentlemanly sports of yachting, hunting, safariing and horse racing; exotic, erotic or bawdy portraits of women; and advertisements promoting such goods and services as champagne, shoes, welding and locksmithing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A (Mainly) Manly History of Cigars<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Twain<\/em> by Eric Bess<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Cigar smoking hasn\u2019t always been a male pursuit. For centuries, in indigenous cultures throughout the Americas, women and men lit uncured stogies for medicinal, spiritual and ritualistic reasons, as well as for pleasure, as evidenced by pre-Columbian<\/a> artifacts. The word cigar<\/em> derives from the Mayan verb sikar<\/em>, which translates as \u201cto smoke rolled tobacco leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Christopher Columbus dropped anchor off Cuba on October 29, 1492, he sent two crewmen to investigate the island. The Spaniards witnessed men and women puffing on raw tobacco leaves wrapped in corn husks. Eight days later, they saw the same cigars on the island of San Salvador. When the explorers returned home to Spain, they brought tobacco with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cigar smoking thrived among the elite in Spain and Portugal for the next 300 years, spreading to Holland and Russia by the 1750s. Russian empress Catherine II put silk coverlets around her cigars to protect her fingers from staining, thus inventing the cigar band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the 1800s, the British, French and Americans had acquired a taste for puffing on cigars. From that time on, they were considered a predominately male vice, particularly during the Victorian era<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Victoria<\/a> herself detested cigar and pipe smoke. And the city of Boston banned smoking on public streets in 1880. As a result, the smoking room was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men would retreat to these fume-filled dens for cigars, libations and male bonding. \u201cIt was an opportunity for men to get together, network and talk business and tell tall tales,\u201d Nickless says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the advent of photography<\/a>, influential figures like Mark Twain<\/a>, Ulysses S. Grant<\/a>, Theodore Roosevelt<\/a> and King Edward VII<\/a> were pictured chomping on cigars, solidifying smoking\u2019s status as a high-class habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, right after his 1901 coronation, King Edward declared, \u201cGentlemen, you may smoke,\u201d an allusion to the end of the tobacco prohibition imposed by his late mother, Queen Victoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Winston<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Tony<\/a><\/figure>\n
Left: Even in his later years, Winston Churchill<\/a> remained a dedicated cigar smoker. Right: John F. Kennedy enjoys a puff<\/a> in a 2016 acrylic painting by Tony Rubino<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By World War I, Nickless says, \u201ccigarettes had become the latest tech for getting nicotine into the system. They were less expensive, seen as healthy and deemed acceptable to women.\u201d But the image of the dominant male cigar smoker remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mid-20th century saw such illustrious stogie devotees as Winston Churchill<\/a>, Ernest Hemmingway<\/a>, John F. Kennedy<\/a> and Fidel Castro<\/a>, and cigar sales hit a new high in 1964 after the U.S. Surgeon General deemed them healthier than cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Black-and-white<\/a>
Portrait of Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar<\/a>, 1986, by Greg Gorman<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In the late 20th century, the \u201cmanliest man\u201d of our time, Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>, famously became a cigar aficionado, and Wall Streeters still smoked expensive Cuban imports (illegal in the U.S.) to show off their wealth and pluckiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the women\u2019s liberation movement, more females entered the workforce and earned a disposable income, which some of them spent on traditionally masculine luxuries like single-malt scotch and hand-rolled cigars.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Christy<\/a>
Supermodels Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista with cigars<\/a> in a 1989 photograph by Arthur Elgort<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In fact, the early 1990s birthed a stogie boomlet as women began taking up cigar smoking as an expression of their power, affluence and independence. Raquel Welch<\/a>, Whoopi Goldberg<\/a> and Demi Moore<\/a> were all proud smokers, while supermodels like Linda Evangelista<\/a>, Claudia Schiffer<\/a> and Heidi Klum<\/a> were photographed mouthing cigars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the 1990s on, the biggest female pop stars, from Madonna to Rihanna<\/a>, have been lured by the aura of dominance and sophistication associated with cigar smoking. It\u2019s hard to believe now, but seeing a woman, particularly a young one, with a cigar was viewed as a shocking flip of age and gender roles. Power was no longer an old man\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cigar Accessories Maintain Their Appeal<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"Lizard-shaped<\/a>
One of a pair of lizard-shaped cigar lighters<\/a> made from silver and antelope horn, ca. 1900, offered by Pushkin Antiques<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

These days, hand-rolled cigars remain luxury items in themselves \u2014 selling for up to $1.3 million per stick<\/a> \u2014 because of their rarity and the artisanal skill required to make them. \u201cBeyond their rich aromas and intricate craftsmanship, cigars evoke a bygone era of elegance and fortitude,\u201d says Alexander Pushkin, founder of Pushkin Antiques<\/a>, in Royal Tunbridge Wells, England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, many of the tools involved in their storage and consumption \u2014 cigar humidors and cigar boxes, cigar cutters, cigar lighters and ashtrays \u2014 are collected as refined <\/em>objets d\u2019art<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Solid<\/a>
Solid silver cigar case<\/a>, 1890s, offered by Pushkin Antiques<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople purchase a diverse array of items, which have to be functional and stylish,\u201d Pushkin explains. \u201cEach piece must be beautiful to enhance the overall experience and, equally important, practical to honor the cigar and treat it with the utmost care it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another antiques specialist, Matthias Mattmer, of Van den Andern<\/a>, in Nuremberg, Germany, breaks down the market for cigar-related objects this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n