Wrapped in Elegance – The Art of the Cigar Bands

The text below is the excerpt of the book The Art of Cigar Bands (ISBN: 9781639198726), written by Philippe Mesmer, published by Parkstone International.

The year is 1348. The flower of the English nobility has assembled at the royal palace. True to the chivalric principles of courtly love, the lords engage the ladies in pleasurably superficial verbal dalliance. King Edward III – son of Edward II and Isabella of France, and at this stage 19 years into his reign at the age of 36 – mingles with them. Then something shocking happens. A lady’s garter suddenly becomes horribly visible on the floor, evidently having come adrift for some reason from one or other leg of the Countess of Salisbury. At once the king steps forward, perceiving instantly the potential humiliation for the Countess in the burgeoning smiles and knowing glances of the surrounding courtiers. He stoops and picks up the blue ribbon, lightly · but very audibly · exclaiming, ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’ (‘Shame on those who think the worst of such a thing!’). And for good measure he adds a comment to the effect that many of the men present would actually be only too delighted to come into possession of such a trophy.

Thus was born the noble Order of the Garter, to which 40 of the most respected and honourable citizens of the realm have belonged ever since, largely as a result of their own good works or political leadership, but sometimes through membership of the royal family. The original idea, however, was that they should conform to the precepts inspired by the legend of King Arthur, whose knights were both valiant and chaste.

Thus too did a piece of feminine underwear lend its name to one of the most prestigious orders of present-day chivalry: a thing of mundane practicality was turned into something of majestic significance. A ribbon that encircled a shapely leg in order both to help clothe its nakedness and perhaps to enhance its attraction would henceforth arouse men’s enthusiasm and their determination to attain the honour.

The cigar-band is possessed of precisely the same charms. Without it, the cigar would appear quite naked. It would lose its overall elegance. Like a garter, the cigarband forcibly attracts and holds the eye before it allows it to wander on, finally freed, down the brown body of the cigar. For more than 150 years it has appeared in various guises as anything from a mere adorning a work of art to a purely commercial means of advertising, to a plaything of the rich and aristocratic. It has been credited with all the most poetic qualities of a rose and with the martial power of a German emperor, with the ferocity of a lion and with the sweet smile of a child-actress. It accompanies stride for stride, with humour and with artistry, the march of human society in both technical progress and imagination.

Hundreds of thousands of cigar-bands have been created from this multiplicity of inspirations. Such an abundance could not but attract collectors, many of them to the point of becoming enthusiastic devotees anxious to meet others and talk about their shared preoccupation. Societies, clubs and associations were formed at which cigar-band aficionados could barter and exchange, buy and sell, or simply recount the stories of how they came to acquire their most prized examples. Stories like these, and particularly anecdotes that feature the overcoming of special problems – locating and getting hold of a rare specimen, say – represent something approaching a classic mode of conversation between initiates.

One story I know concerns a collector who travelled to attend a cigar-band-collectors’ convention in Brussels. His interest was immediately caught by a series of (bands portraying) ballerinas. Such a rare set and in such apparently good condition – how nice it would be to have them on display at home! Then to his dismay he realised that the bands were not complete: all the heels were missing. He bought them anyway – at a third of the price he might otherwise have paid · remarking sadly to himself, ‘The ballerinas have no heels: they can’t dance any more …’

The International Cigar-Band Company was founded in the United States in 1934. It was not actually a commercial company so much as an association (unhappily long since defunct) for enthusiasts, and numbered among its members the celebrated Irish-born writer and dramatist George Bernard Shaw. In Europe, the first association of its type originated in Spain in 1949. It was this association which coined the term for collecting cigar-bands that is used in Spain and France and in some other countries of western and northern Europe – vitolfilia in Spanish, vitolphilie in French · but that is not ordinarily current among English- speakers. The first element of the word derives from the Spanish vitola, originally referring to a sort of wooden ruler used specifically to measure cigars. Today, the association has as its director the renowned expert F. Giménes Caballero.

After Spain it was the turn of first Belgium and then France to be infected by the mania for collecting cigar-bands. Once there were enough enthusiasts in both countries, two more associations sprang up, each based in Belgium. One had its headquarters in Ghent, the other in Antwerp. So widely and so thoroughly did the mania spread thereafter that entire museums were opened featuring nothing but cigar-bands, as happened at Delmenhorst, near Bremen, in northern Germany.

The shared passion for collecting cigar-bands, represented by the burgeoning associations of fanatical devotees, brought together people of all ages and all backgrounds. It is not surprising, then, that in our slightly later age the Internet has become a major means for cigar-band collectors to communicate with each other, and at a huge number of websites. Now it is possible to find out about other people’s collections, to arrange exchanges, to make deals, or simply to participate in discussion forums on the subject – and all on a global scale while sitting at home.

The great majority of such websites are, however, American and German. Tap in ‘cigar bands’ (or, if you are prepared to be cosmopolitan, ‘Bauchbinde’), put your search-engine to work, and you will in no time be faced with several thousand possible visit-sites. Scott Tomlin’s site, based in Chicago, for instance, lists his collection as categorised in themes or displays the cigar-bands themselves against a black background.

This book may endeavour to emphasise the charm and the beauty of particular bands, yet the history and the art of their manufacture is by no means ignored, and should not be. The ultimate origins of the cigar-bands remain badly obscure, but the first genuinely artistic examples – examples that reveal imagination together with the highest degree of taste and refinement – were produced before the year 1850.

Later, the cigar manufacturer Gustave Antoine Bock had the brilliant notion that was to make him famous ever after: he would individualise his cigars by annotating the brand on each one. This placed a whole new artistic field within the working domain of artists, designers and printers, and led to the production of some truly creative masterpieces. The golden age of the cigarband had arrived. It ended shortly after World War I at the onset of the era of advertising and the mass market.

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