(Possibly) 2nd Ever Aristocrat End Table Humidor

[HDGSN]

In 2013, I was fortunate enough to have Bob Staebell build me one of his Aristocrat Mini-Tall Humidors, which is a few inches smaller in width and depth than his End Tables. Mine is just a few boxes away from being loaded to the brim. With the news of Bob retiring and his existing inventory selling out in 24 hours (Bob’s own words to me earlier this week) and with @TBird55 mentioning he previously found an Aristocrat on an online marketplace, I have been looking every day for an Aristocrat to appear for sale near me. It finally happened this week.

This is a 1999 Aristocrat End Table. It was listed on Craigslist by the only owner for $475 and was just 2 hours away in Atlanta. I offered $300, and luckily the guy accepted! It even came with a custom glass top the owner made for it.

As the seller’s story goes, there was a discussion on a message board back in 1999 about cabinet humidors, and Bob posted that he could build a better cabinet than one everyone liked, but he wanted five pre-orders to build a humidor this size. My seller was apparently the 2nd of the 5 volunteers. Hence, the #2 on the bottom of the cabinet with Bob’s initials and a 1999 date. 

I called Bob to verify this story and e-mailed him the photos from the sale listing. Here is Bob’s response:

“That is definitely one of the first pieces of the Aristocrat Cabinet humidors series.  I had been building a few cabinets prior but 1999 is when I settled on that basic design/dimensions & started using the Set & Forget humidification.  The angle mount below the drawer was for the Habitat control, which was and LCD and difficult to see.  I stopped putting the hygrometer in the drawer face shortly thereafter.

 

The basic dimensions are the basis of every End Table that followed.  Our current Set & Forget system will fit right in.

 

cheers,

Bob Staebell”

 

Now I definitely have room for a 50 cab of DCs!

 

 

 

[Habana Mike]

Very nice. Lucky find!

[Derboesekoenig]

Wow nice. I search all of craigslist once a month and I must've missed this one...

[La_Tigre]

Awesome pick up!

[madandana]

Love it.

[Bri Fi]

Very nice! Congrats

[MountainMilG]

Noooooooo, right out from under my nose lol.  Great find, I had stopped looking around the area for them, ironically I may wind up getting one from TN

[mrmessy]

Great find!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Meklown]

Stunner. May not be to everyone's taste, but I had always wanted to place some dismantled SLBs (or cigar bands) beneath a glass top like this.

[Derboesekoenig]

1 hour ago, Meklown said:

Stunner. May not be to everyone's taste, but I had always wanted to place some dismantled SLBs (or cigar bands) beneath a glass top like this.

That would be neat. I've seen where someone put all the different marca cigar bands flattened out under the glass. Not sure how I felt about that

[Ryan]

Nice humidor and a great find.

Has that been confirmed that Bob Staebell is retiring?

Do you (or anyone) know if AristocratHumidors.com will continue to operate?

 

[Derboesekoenig]

1 hour ago, Ryan said:

Nice humidor and a great find.

Has that been confirmed that Bob Staebell is retiring?

Do you (or anyone) know if AristocratHumidors.com will continue to operate?

 

He has retired, awhile back. The website continues to operate and sales will continue of his humidification machines

[Ryan]

55 minutes ago, Derboesekoenig said:

He has retired, awhile back. The website continues to operate and sales will continue of his humidification machines

Thanks for the info. Somebody I know here is just about to place an order for some of his humidifiers.

[Habana Mike]

Bob is no longer making humidors as his shop is closed. Humidifiers may be an option.

We have thoroughly enjoyed creating Aristocrat Humidors for our clients over the last 25 years, and it is now time to slow the pace down a bit. Our focus will be to continue providing sales and  service of our precision electronic humidification systems for new and existing commercial and residential humidors as show above.  

We are closing the humidor building side of the business.  I look forward to ongoing contact with current clients and greeting new customers for Aristocrat Humidification systems over the coming years.

[anacostiakat]

Great find!  Here is mine that I got from Bob in 2005.

[JohnInCleveland]

Great find.  

 

It basically looks like a half height version of what I got.  I adore it.