Canada in a Box, Cigar Containers that Store Our Past 1883-1935 Canada in a Box, Cigar Containers that Store Our Past 1883-1935 Back Next
Canada in a Box, Cigar Containers that Store Our Past 1883-1935
 CANADA IN A BOX 
 Quick View    Canadian, Eh?    "The Mother Country"    Our American Cousins 
 Romanticized, Belittled, Demonized    Punchlines?    From Sea to Sea    Win, Lose, or Draw 
 Lives of  Men and Boys    Women Plain and Fanciful    Index 

 
 Symbols    Royalty    Lords and Ministers    Poets and Other Characters 
 The Empire at War    Great Scots 



Royalty

Three monarchs—Victoria, her son, Edward VII, and her grandson,
George V—occupied the English throne during the cigar box’s Golden Era, and figure prominently on box labels.


VICTORIA

REINA VICTORIA
REINA VICTORIA
Trimmed wood box (50)
Factory 6 IRD 28
M. W. Meinke, Kitchener, Ont., ca. 1887
CMC 2004.120.6

Queen Victoria at the height of her power. Likely issued in honour of her Golden Jubilee, 20–21 June 1887, marking the 50th year of her reign.


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EDWARD VII

KING'S GUINEAS
KING'S GUINEAS
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 5 Port 24E
E. Vedna Jones, London, Ont. ca. 1935
CMC 2003.46.24

King Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, was the last English monarch for whom an age was named—perhaps because he was the last with such unrestrained appetites. Edward loved women, fine dining, shooting, gambling, tobacco—he consumed 12 large cigars plus 20 cigarettes a day—and horse racing. He is said to have sent his horse, Persimmon, Christmas cards; horses from his stables won the Derby three times.

The gold coins on the label (indicating the "royal worth" of the cigars being sold) are really one-pound (£1) "sovereigns". The Guinea, worth 1 pound, 1 shilling, was discontinued in 1816. Tradition being tradition, horseracing purses continued to be tallied in guineas until decimalization in 1971. (British gold coins of all types were permanently withdrawn from circulation during World War I.)

An older label by the venerable lithographer, Rolph and Clark (1904–1917), on a newer box (1935 or later).


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GEORGE V

IRVING
IRVING (Coronation Year Souvenir)
Hinged tin box 25
Factory 34 IRD 17 Series of 1897
J. Hirsch & Sons, Montreal, Que.
CMC 2001.185.33 Tony Hyman Collection

Montreal cigar maker J. Hirsch & Sons produced a series of three tins in 1911 commemorating the coronation of King George V, son of Edward VII and grandson of Queen Victoria.


IRVING
IRVING (H.R.H. Edward, Prince of Wales)
Hinged tin box 25
Factory 34 IRD 17 Series of 1897
J. Hirsch & Sons, Montreal, Que.
CMC 2001.185.34 Tony Hyman Collection

The future King Edward VIII would abdicate his throne in 1936, after a reign of less than a year, to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson.


IRVING
IRVING (Duke & Duchess of Connaught)
Hinged tin box (25)
Factory 34 IRD 17 Series of 1897
J. Hirsch & Sons, Montreal, Que.
CMC 2001.185.35 Tony Hyman Collection

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1850–1942), third son of Queen Victoria, served as Governor General of Canada, 1911–1916.

ROYAL FAMILY
ROYAL FAMILY
Nailed wood box (50)
Factory 3 IRD 14
Cigars likely by L. A. Bourdon, L'Epiphanie, Que. (ca. 1910)
CMC 2004.122.9

One contemporary and two future kings of England look out at the cigar buyer: George V (reigned 1910–1936); beside him, eldest son Edward (reigned and abdicated as Edward VIII, 1936); and beside Queen Mary, second son Albert (reigned as George VI, 1936–1952). The other children (l-r): Henry, George, John, and Mary. Neither George V nor George VI grew up expecting to be king: George V’s elder brother died of pneumonia; George VI’s abdicated.

PRINCE GEORGE HOTEL
PRINCE GEORGE HOTEL
Trimmed nailed wood box (10)
Factory 5 IRD 34 Series of 1897
Wm. Kelly & Sons, London, Ont.
CMC 2004.38.31

The arms of George, Prince of Wales (later George V), adorns an image of his namesake hotel on York Street in Toronto, Ontario (1910–1969).


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