When the Federal government began regulating cigars and cigar boxes during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), cigar boxes could be made only of wood or cardboard and could be round, rectangular or square. Tin was added to the list of permitted materials in 1870 and, in 1878, tax law was changed again to permit  boxes to be of any shape and material “as long as a Federal Revenue Stamp could be affixed thereto.”

    This slight loosening of regulations happened at at time when high quality new cigar tobaccos were entering the market, taxes were being lowered, demand was rising and thousands of new cigar makers, brokers, wholesalers and distributors were entering the market. 

    Give thousands of people the opportunity to suddenly be as creative as they like and the result is “Advertising Anarchy,” a revolution in product packaging that has never been equalled.

    The Golden Age of the cigar and the cigar box was open with a bang. The period from 1878 to 1883 witnesses the art of packaging going from the mundane to the splendiferous.  Its like will never be seen again.