Name/Title
HangingEntry/Object ID
2005.019.0025Description
Wall hanging made of cigar wrappers. Similar quilt was appraised on the Antiques Roadshow in Seattle in 2002. Here is what they said:
APPRAISER: Okay. This is a silk, and those were from cigar boxes. Um, usually they were very popular during the 1890s through the 1910s. And many of them were from Cuba, the cigars, were from Cuba. I want to show you that this was the original ribbon that came on these boxes, and they all had names. And those names were the companies that produced and sold those cigars. They were beautiful boxes, incidentally. They were cedar wood and they were really gorgeous. Now let me show you some of these. Like this would say "Buckingham," "Conchas Extra," "Victor Dewey," "Conchas Extra," quite a few. This is... this Conchas Extra may have been a very popular Cuban cigar because I see a lot of that in here, and I've seen it in other quilts. They stitched these to a foundation-- usually a muslin-- and that's how it's held together. So they stitched that there down to the foundation. They probably started in the center and then moved out and attached this... put this inside, these extra ribbons, these wonderful ribbons that look like a fringe, but are not really a fringe. And then, on the back, this is a cotton sateen, and that's how they're holding these ribbons on, by stitching together. It's a wonderful, wonderful piece. If you had to replace this piece, at this size and condition... It's in wonderful condition. I didn't see any breaks. It's a $500 to $600 piece.
Also Antiques Roadshow in SF 1997:
GUEST: It was from my great-grandparents. My great-grandmother made it. She was a milliner. She made hats. My great-grandfather was the accountant for a liquor store on Brannan Street here in San Francisco. This was one of the few things they kept that made it through the earthquake in 1906.
APPRAISER: Now, you told me that it survived the earthquake and fire, along with something else?
GUEST: My grandmother saved a parrot as well. So my great-grandmother took this, and my grandmother took the parrot, and they probably were one of those camping families.
APPRAISER: Of all the things to save, I'm not sure anyone could have chosen to pick a parrot and a quilt. But what's really interesting about this quilt, and what makes it a rare survival, is that these are all cigar bands. And they're not cigar bands from the cigar itself, but cigars would be sold in bulk, and they would be wrapped in groups of 25 and 50 with a simple silk band. And the band would tell you the name of the cigar. The other thing about these is these cigar ribbons were typically not of a very high quality silk, because they were only an aside to the cigar. And so they would not survive, typically. And so this is an incredibly rare survival to have all these silk bands in near perfect condition. And there's over 350 silk bands here. All the various names for the cigars are listed. We have Caballeros, Extra Fina, Perfectos, Grand Republic, The Boss. The other interesting thing is that we tend to think of the cigar business today as something that's based solely in Havana, and the Cubans. And these do represent Cuban cigars, for the most part, but you'll also see symbols here representing the English kings. Here they have Reina Victoria, for Queen Victoria. The English had a big part of the cigar market in the late 19th century. In today's market, where cigar collectibles are very hot, I could easily see this doing $3,000 to $5,000 without any trouble.Collection
Clothing Collection
