Tobacciana, Pipes and Cigar Boxes

Although cigar smoking is less popular today, people still appreciate the distinctive packaging cigars come in, and the value of antique cigar boxes has remained steady. Because of the Revenue Act of 1864, cigar boxes produced prior to the mid-19th century are much scarcer and are likely to carry a higher value compared to mass-produced boxes from the early 20th century. It was fashionable, or cool, to use tobacco before the 1960s. In response, companies began offering fashionable cigarette cases, cigarette lighters, and pipes. Status symbols included smoking articles made of sterling or gold. Some of these artistic renderings you may come across on antique cigar boxes include sports, pets and animals, holiday scenes, indigenous people, familial scenes, and presidents and political figures.

Essentially, Tobaccoiana refers to anything related to tobacco that is collectible, antique, or vintage. A variety of vintage Tobacciana is available on Bidsquare, including vintage cigar boxes, cigar cutters, cigar cases, cigarette holders, cigarette cases, humidors, smoking jackets, lighters, and smoking pipes, among others. Aside from contemporary pipes, Bidsquare also offers a wide selection of estate pipes, including vintage pipes from legacy brands such as vintage Dunhills, Barlings, and Charatans to antiques from centuries ago. This selection is the ideal choice for collectors seeking rare pieces, providing aficionados with the chance to own a valuable piece of history; additionally, an estate pipe represents a good value for money, since it is usually much less expensive than a new pipe from the same manufacturer.

Despite the wide variety of materials used for pipes, including wood, bronze, iron, stone, wood, and meerschaum, the most popular were China, asbestos, various natural products, and clay pipes. Only three mediums qualify as art forms for tobacco pipes - meerschaum, porcelain, and wood. Beginning in the mid-1700s, woods other than briar were used to make pipes. These antique pipes are no longer made, and no longer smoked, but their beauty, carving, value, and rarity are worth valuing, cherishing, and collecting.

For a long time, meerschaum, a white, clay-like mineral, ruled the tobacco pipes. During the mid-19th century, briar, also called heath tree, was discovered to be another ideal pipe material. In Europe, it gained popularity. Briar replaced the queen of pipes around the turn of the century. Some of the European factories that still make pipes use hard- or soft-paste porcelain. In contrast to meerschaum and wood and pipe bowls, porcelain bowls usually had one dimension. There was a wealth of decoration available, including portraits of important people, hunting scenes, landscapes, commemorative events, holiday scenes, and much more, often mounted on ivory, hardwood, or horn stems. Despite dominating for about two centuries, porcelain pipes struggled to keep up with the times. This medium was unable to compete with the more popular ones - the inexpensive clay, the pleasant-smoking briar, and the finely carved meerschaum.  As far as collectors and smokers are concerned, the briar still reigns supreme.

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