November 2008 —
- Around the turn of the century it is estimated there were more than 100,000 cigar manufactures in the United States, each trying to set their product apart and attract part of the $7 billion market
- Many the innovations in early advertising, marketing, branding, and packaging were made by the cigar industry during the Golden Age 1880-1920
- Many current events, people and trends show up in cigar label art, giving a unique look into the culture and society of the past
- Stone lithography was developed in 1798 by Aloys Senfelder
- The Chromolithography process that allows for multiple color labels was developed in the 1840s and used to print cigar labels until around the 1940s when the cheaper photomechanical method was developed
- As cigar lost popularity to cigarettes after WWI it was no longer feasible to use4 the more expensive Chromolithography process was phased out
- Stone Lithography is no longer used at the industrial level, and the stones used for printing were ground down after each run, which makes the surviving labels true limited editions
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