With a vast inventory of beautiful furniture at 1stDibs, we’ve got just the cigar bar antique you’re looking for. A cigar bar antique — often made from
metal,
silver and
wood — can elevate any home. Whether you’re looking for an older or newer cigar bar antique, there are earlier versions available from the 18th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 20th Century. When you’re browsing for the right cigar bar antique, those designed in
Victorian,
Art Deco and
Arts and Crafts styles are of considerable interest. Many designers have produced at least one well-made cigar bar antique over the years, but those crafted by
A&J Zimmerman Ltd.,
George Betjemann & Sons and
George Nathan & Ridley Hayes are often thought to be among the most beautiful.
A cigar bar antique can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price 1stDibs is $1,628, while the lowest priced sells for $295 and the highest can go for as much as $34,491.
Cigars were not always packaged in what we now know as the antique cigar boxes and humidors that have over time become eye-catching decorative objects as well as collector’s items.
Outside the United States, cigar boxes are said to have originated in the 1840s when a German businessman, Hermann Dietrich Upmann of H. Upmann Cigars, bought a cigar factory and opened a bank in Havana, Cuba. Upmann reportedly handed out cedar cigar boxes branded with advertising for the bank as gifts to his banking clients. In the early 1860s, after years of cigars being shipped in big crates or barrels, cigar boxes became a requirement when the United States passed a law that mandated the use of boxes for tobacco producers, which was part of a broader effort to regulate the tobacco industry and generate revenue for the war effort. Humidors, which are moisture-controlled storage boxes that allow a cigar enthusiast to store, organize and preserve a larger collection of cigars, were very popular accessories during the early 1900s onward.
As the use of cigar boxes and humidors became widespread, all kinds of options materialized over the years, with particularly vibrant editions of these decorative objects emerging during the Art Nouveau, mid-century modern and other eras. Visionary designers like Isamu Noguchi popularized the idea of tobacco accessories as art with projects such as his decorative ashtrays.
Today, not unlike antique and vintage ashtrays, cigar boxes are more than practical objects. In fact, there are many uses for an old cigar box even after the cigars are gone. They can be used as planters, tissue boxes or can support your long-delayed effort to organize your sewing and craft supplies. During the Great Depression, an emptied cigar box — perhaps a walnut Art Deco-style cigar box with inlays in bronze and hand-carved decorative geometric patterns adorning its exterior — was occasionally repurposed as a jewelry box.
Antique and vintage cigar boxes — made of wood, metal or other materials — are valuable treasures in some corners of the collecting world, and in your home, they’re exquisite desk ornaments and colorful flourishes to add to your bookcase or mantel. On 1stDibs, find a variety of antique and vintage cigar boxes and other decorative boxes today.