What year did the first cigar boxes come out? I know they used to be sold in bundles pre civil war.?

Question

I heard a rumor that it was an invention of a civil war general so his troops could keep their smokes clean and dry in poor conditions, so I suppose this could be true as being a morale thing but I would think a box like that would be cumbersome when carried along with the tools of war. Does anyone have any thoughts or know anything about this?

Answer 1

Hey John T,

Cigars were originally sold in bundles covered with pigs' bladders (with a pod of vanilla to improve the smell); then came the use of large chests, holding up to10,000 cigars. But in 1830, the banking firm of H.Upmann started shipping back cigars, for the use of its directors in London, in sealed cedar boxes stamped with the bank's emblem. When the bank decided to go, full-scale, into the cigar business, the cedar box took off as a form of packaging for all the major Havana brands, and all hand made cigars (though small quantities today are sometimes packages in cardboard cartons, and single cigars of many brands come in aluminum tubes lined with cedar). Cedar helps to prevent cigars from drying out and furthers the maturing process.