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Posted

The concept is simple :D

From time to time I will put up a picture of a vintage box and members dig up a little bit of history about the brand/cigar/people behind it. 

We all add to the the story and every valued contribution goes into the draw for a great sampler drawn the following week. 

Pour yourself a drink, light up a cigar and dig away :cigar:

Let's start with the following:

Cigar Boxes: HABANOS CIGAR BOX.-CUBA LA FLOR DE HENRRY CLAY (EMPTY) PRE REVOLUTION - Photo 1 - 110191375

 

Cigar Boxes: HABANOS CIGAR BOX.-CUBA LA FLOR DE HENRRY CLAY (EMPTY) PRE REVOLUTION - Photo 3 - 110191375

 

Cigar Boxes: HABANOS CIGAR BOX.-CUBA LA FLOR DE HENRRY CLAY (EMPTY) PRE REVOLUTION - Photo 2 - 110191375

 

Cigar Boxes: HABANOS CIGAR BOX.-CUBA LA FLOR DE HENRRY CLAY (EMPTY) PRE REVOLUTION - Photo 4 - 110191375

  • Like 3
Posted

From the first result off Google:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_(cigar)

History[edit]

The Henry Clay brand was created in the 1840s by a Cuban tobacco magnate, the Spanish emigrant Julián Álvarez Granda. The name was proposed by Alvarez when he was in the service of an employer and he maintained it once he was in business for himself.[3]

The Cuban business interest of Alvarez was eventually transferred to a British company named Henry Clay and Bock & Co. Ltd. which was founded in 1888. Henry Clay and Bock & Co. Ltd. became a component of the Tobacco Trust that, along with other trusts, was an object of the antitrust legislation of the United States.[4]

The brand is currently owned by the Spanish company Altadis, a division of Imperial Tobacco.

In popular culture

  • In the Russian and Soviet poet, playwright and actor Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky's 1925 poem Блек энд уайт/Black and White portraying issues of racism and capitalist exploitation, the setting is a Henry Clay and Bock Ltd. cigar factory in Havana.
  • Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief Arsène Lupin was noted to have used a Henry Clay cigar to conceal a reply to an invented associate as a part of his escape from jail in Arsène Lupin in Prison.
  • In the film Blackmail (1929 film) the blackmailer is offered a Henry Clay cigar but chooses a Corona and gets Frank to pay for it.
  • In George Simenon's novel, Pietr the Latvian, the book's namesake is observed by Inspector Maigret smoking a Henry Clay cigar.
  • The Kurt Weill song 'Matrosen-Tango' (Sailor-Tango) includes the lyric 'Und Zigarren rauchen wir Henry Clay ... Denn andere Zigarren, die rauchen wir nicht' (And we smoke Henry Clay cigars... we don't smoke any other cigars).
  • Like 1
Posted

Named after the American politician, Henry Clay. Clay was called ‘the Great Compromiser’ because he played a major role in formulating the three landmark sectional compromises of his day: the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Tariff Compromise of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850. Coming from the border state of Kentucky, he was predisposed toward moderation when sectional conflicts were involved. His main objective was to avoid a civil war. But in this, as in so many of his more immediate goals, he was defeated.

Posted

I thread right up my street. 

I've owned quite a few boxes of Henry Clay, some sealed some not,  so I can not say it's true of all their lines, but written on internal card spacer is "13 PREMIERE RANGEE (row)  and 12 DELUXIEME RANGEE (row)",  Suggesting that with HC  you would get two different classes of cigar in one box. I've never seen that in any other brand.   The cigars were not visibly dissimilar in any way. 

Maybe just advertising novelty,    but I would definitely fall for it. 

Screen Shot 2017-07-21 at 21.13.27.png

  • Like 4
Posted

I own this beautiful lotus lighter of the fabrica facade:5F308A8A-3D59-412A-92C8-E8CC0B0C86E2.jpeg.afb51e773157e688daf2440f14c87173.jpeg

Henry Clay ”The Great Pacificator” What a perfect(o) name for a cigar...!

  • Like 1
Posted
6 hours ago, Goodfortune said:

Clay was called ‘the Great Compromiser’ because he played a major role in formulating the three landmark sectional compromises of his day: the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Tariff Compromise of 1833, and the Compromise of 1859.

I believe it should be the Compromise of 1850. Clay died in 1852.

 

Posted

I found this tidbit regarding the change of manufacture of the cigars from Cuba to New Jersey in 1932 due to a strike at the Cuban cigar factory and to avoid tariffs.  The cigar factory that was built in Trenton, NJ is on the National Register of historic places.  Apparently now the building has been converted to residential condos.

Cigar Factory Trenton.JPG

The Henry Clay and Bock & Company Ltd. Cigar Factory is a historic industrial building in the Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey. It was built in 1932 to house the hand production of fine cigars and is considered the most architecturally distinct industrial building in the city, having been designed in the Spanish Revival style to highlight the Cuban origins of the company.

History[edit]

The company moved cigar production from Cuba to Trenton in 1932 after a strike at the Cuban factory, and in order to avoid high tariffs. Brands produced at the plant included Henry Clay, Bock, La Corona, and Village Brands, among others, with Winston Churchill counted a faithful customer. At its peak in the 1930s the company produced a quarter of the fine cigar market in the United States, with 3000 employees at the Trenton plant. The factory was closed in 1967 and production moved to Pennsylvania. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 12, 1979.[2] The building was converted to apartments in the 1980s.[3]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places — Mercer County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection — Historic Preservation Office. January 22, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 16, 2013.
  2. ^ Wolf, Gary (August 26, 1976). "Henry Clay and Bock & Co. Ltd. Cigar Factory". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  3. ^ Nash, Margo (September 14, 2003). "Recalling the Heyday Of Trenton's Cigar Industry". The New York Times.
  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, FireDigger said:

I believe it should be the Compromise of 1850. Clay died in 1852.

 

Yes, it absolutely should. I retyped to get rid of the red hyperlink and my fat fingers hit the “9” instead of “0” on my phone lol. Corrected, thanks! 

  • Haha 1
Posted

Found this interesting excerpt from an old Habanos factory Book. Gives some history as well as lists all the Cigar sizes they sold.

La Flor.PNG

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