A bit of fun. Auction Question? In your opinion...out of these 5 boxes of cigars, which is the most valuable, and which is the 2nd most valuable?

[99call]

[Ford2112]

Partagas, Cohiba

[99call]

5 minutes ago, Ford2112 said:

Partagas, Cohiba

Interesting, Why?

[eg133]

If all legit, my guess would be Cohiba, Burlington.


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[Ford2112]

3 hours ago, 99call said:

Interesting, Why?

Lol I don't know.

[Jack]

The Partagas may be real. The Cohiba lancero box appears to be a fake "diplomatic" gift. The box on top of the Partagas I can't really tell what it may be. The others would, at best, be Cuban leaf made in some long closed factory in the United States. I've had enough "clear Havanas" to put less value in them than Zino Davidoff did his final 100,000 Cuban cigars.

[99call]

6 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Lol I don't know.

I guess you sort of did exactly what I was interested in, and why I posted the question.   

-The Partagas box look real and sealed, and boxes that are found in auctions like this are fairly common stuff for the time i.e. Habaneros, Mille Fleurs etc etc  and would most probably be the most valuable box for 95 out of 100 bidders. 

-The Burlington box, and incredibly rare, but still undervalued British 'Clear Havana'. It relates to Burlington Arcade in London, where there is history of long standing cigar merchants based in the prestigious run of shops. Sullivan Powell appears to the creator of the line, and was based in the arcade. I personally would love to smoke one of these. 

- Now for me this is where is gets interesting, is an opened packet of 4 bargain basement genuine King Edwards, made from 1960s NC tobacco, worth more than a bullshit box of Diplomatic Fohiba Lanceros? There is a chance they are as least Cuban tobacco? Also they have non smoking value, as a reference tool/bit of fun.

- The 5 box looks to be a box of Greek/Russian cigarillos, and I think we can be confident they get 5th spot

[99call]

A few interesting facts about the Arcade,  particularly the Jag heist, and the prostitution chicanery 

 

Fashion

The kind of things you would have bought in those days were lace gloves, hats, bonnets and lace handkerchiefs.

Lord was a gentleman’s outfitters (no relation of mine), which spanned numbers 66, 67, 68, 69. You would have bought collars for shirts, gloves, canes, handkerchiefs.

Today, N. Peal is our oldest shop going back 76 years.

 

Trinkets

Shops sold vinaigrettes, which you would wear on a chain around your wrist.

In the late 1700s, men wore flamboyant cuffs. One of the reasons they did that was to hide the vinaigrette inside.

There were no sewage works in London at that time, and lots of horse and carts, so the air wasn’t as sweet as it is now.

You would hold the vinaigrette to your nose and it would have perfume inside.

 

Tobacco

There used to be a shop here called Sullivan Powell that used to do handmade cigarettes. You could have them wrapped in any colour you wanted.

So, if you wanted pink papers, you could have that. That was before World War II and it moved to number 60-61 and closed in the early 1990s.

 

Homosexuality

In those days, homosexuality was illegal.

So the police would very often turn a blind eye if one of the two individuals involved dressed as the opposite gender when they entered the Arcade.

 

Prostitution

The way it would work is the ‘visitor’ would buy an item from the shop below, go upstairs, spend some wonderful time and then give them the present.

They would then sell the present back to the shop and that’s how they got their money.

The most famous of all our establishments was numbers 27, 28, 29 – a millinery run by Madam Parsons.

She died here on the premises and when the doctor came to give the death certificate, they discovered “she” was actually a he.

 

Rules

We didn’t allow ladies in without a chaperone because they were deemed to be not the right kind of women we wanted in  the Arcade.

Also groups of small children weren’t allowed. That's because, after the Napoleonic Wars, lots formed groups and did tend to be pickpockets.

You weren’t allowed to carry large purchases because it would be deemed unladylike or ungentlemanly.

You weren’t allowed to show merriment – that’s a polite way to say drunkenness.

The rules that we still try to enforce include no whistling, which is difficult as nowadays people are whistling to the song playing on their headphones; and no rushing – but everyone is in a rush nowadays!

 

Beadles

We believe beadles originally sat inside the columns, saying who could or couldn’t come in.

It was undoubtedly for when they got tired.

I reckon that stopped when the columns went (at the top end after the World War II bombing and the Piccadilly end in about 1910).

 

George Eliot

Number 15 used to be a bookshop where George Eliot, who wrote under a male pseudonym, used to put notes inside books to her lover.

That’s how they allegedly planned their elopement together.

 

Timeline of Burlington Arcade:

 

1818 The arcade installs the first public electric lamps in Britain.

March 1819  The arcade was built by Lord George Cavendish, later Earl of Burlington, for: “The sale of jewellery and fancy articles of fashionable demand, for the gratification of the public”.

1820 There were 47 leaseholders, including prostitutes. Many families lived above their shops, with their stock, in very cramped conditions.

1830 James Drew was the first stallholder to receive the Royal Warrant in the Arcade. His claim to fame was not only the Gladstone stiff collar but also the soft collar.

1856  Hancocks designed the Victoria Cross. It has since produced every one of the 1,350 crosses issued.

1879  The arcade came into possession of the Chesham family, whose Coat of Arms still sits on top of the Piccadilly Arch. Their family motto Cavendo Tutus is above the Arch of Burlington Gardens.

1936 A fire broke out and the panic caused looting. There was also architectural damage to the Piccadilly end during the war when it was hit by bombs.

DRDENA Burlington Arcade circa 1930

1953 Percy the poltergeist made his first appearance by rearranging briefcases and handbags in a semi-circle on the floor of number 42, The Unicorn Leather Company.

1964  A Jaguar Mark 10, the only four wheels ever to enter the Arcade, drove through. Six masked men armed with weapons smashed the windows of Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Association shop, stealing jewels at a value of £35,000. They were never caught.

1969  On May 21 1969, Princess Alexandra unveiled a plaque, moulded by Joshua Wedgwood, to mark the Arcade’s 150th anniversary.

1976  Ingrid Bergman visited jeweller Richard Ogden in the Arcade, who closed his shop for the visit.

1990s  The Arcade was featured in films such as Patriot Games, starring Harrison Ford, in 1992, and 101 Dalmatians, which starred Glenn Close, in 1996.

2019  The 200th anniversary of the Arcade.

[Ford2112]

@99call the reason I picked the Party, Cohiba over the others is because in todays cigar climate I could probably surmise that's what people would recognize and it would fetch more.  

My friend has been smoking cigars for decades and still brings back fakes from Mexico.

I would love to smoke one of those clear havanas.

[Fugu]

I wouldn’t bid on either. 😄

[99call]

8 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

@99call the reason I picked the Party, Cohiba over the others is because in todays cigar climate I could probably surmise that's what people would recognize and it would fetch more.  

My friend has been smoking cigars for decades and still brings back fakes from Mexico.

I would love to smoke one of those clear havanas.

Please do not think I was passing any sense of judgement. The purpose of the thread was to to sort of investigate our knee jerk sense of valuation, and I include myself in that. Auctions are a funny old world. We have to use all are smarts and experience, but simultaneously often we have to put our preconceptions of value to one side. I.e. brands or quantity etc

[NSXCIGAR]

Some of those clear Havanas are exceptionally rare so I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it's those.