A couple points of interest here. Look at the size of the Select Havana. This must surely have been the precursor to that Cubana Pareja Galaxia monstrosity. Clearly, it is a band and not a label. The only other possibility is perhaps it was a band surrounding a five-pack bundle or something.

A couple other noteworthies are El Symphonie (with Beethoven featured), the Jefferson brand, Grand Opera at top left (no doubt some diva of the day), and War King featuring another litho picture of what looks like some Prussian emperor. Also, I love the band of the Louisiana Tiger brand.

How long have you been collecting? Is there a network of collectors or something? I'm interested in collecting them myself.

THL, although I'm not a real active collector of bands (I basically have this little album and a couple packs of bands from the early 1900s) what I do know about cigar band collectors is that they are a pretty small and loosely affiliated group. It's not a large, highly organized following like you might have with more popular hobbies. Also, I don't think this hobby has much in the way of standards, etc--I just think the folks who collect them like them, and that's why they collect them. In fact, you can get what I would consider pretty good deals on cigar bands at forums such as eBay. Keep in mind that the older they get, the less plentiful they get, and therefore more expensive. I believe the Smithsonian has a tremendous collection of very early American cigar bands, circa Civil War era. Although these that I am picturing are really interesting (to me), they are also hampered by the fact that they have been glued into this booklet, which no doubt affects their value. However, I find their historical value to be inestimable.

Feel free to email me at gerbercat(at)yahoo(dot)com, and I will send you some to get started. Then check out eBay--I think you will find a lot there.

Dan

top

Note the one that says "Key West" I heard on a tour of Key West that representatives of Tampa came down there and lured away most of the cigar industry. Prior to that, Key West was the center of the American cigar industry.