Any guess on age to cigar box

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No more than about 25 years old , the company in the Honduras still hand rolls these cigars.

Charles the Great - Products - Finck Cigar Company - World's Best Cigars

Charles the Great

The same small factory in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras has carefully rolled our Charles the Great cigars for over a quarter of a century. Made in the traditional Cuban method, these fine cigars are meticulously hand-bunched using Cuban seed long filler and Honduran binder.
 

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This is an article of the history of the Charles The Great cigar company, est. in 1903, the above mentioned company from Honduras is mentioned and their label though almost exact are not even close to the same quality of the labels from the original company, which your's seems to be from the original company and would date from 1951 or earlier.

SMOKE Volume 18, Issue 2 - Charles the Great Cigar Factory, Tampa
 

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Print is 1800s style

The part that tells me it is old is the label and the way it is printed........
 

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Here are some labels on the side

......stamps......the box locks closed to
 

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This drawer looks higher then the rest

Almost looks like box has hidden compartment
 

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bradyboy said:
cigar box?
looks more like a crafts box
with all the dividers?
The brass locks look modern
Repro?
Brady
Click to expand...

The reason for all the compartments was for different size cigars probably a SAMPLER. Cigar companies still do those today.
 

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This piece came out

That's odd maybe this plays along with the peace maker on the front
 

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Or this box was made to smuggle something lol
 

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I agree that it's a sampler box and that it one of the older ones I have seen doing the research, I could never find one like it, did see a photo of one that looked about the same age but different than your's.

All of the wooden Charles the Great boxes were made of Spanish Cedar, most of the ones closer the the 1951 date seems to have switched to cardboard as the company declined, and then back to cedar after the modern day company restarted the company but using the lesser quality labels.

Most all of the older wooden boxes had the same lock as your's.
 

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jtw1313 said:
......stamps......the box locks closed to
Click to expand...
The bond stamp on your box shows the date but it is hard to read and partially missing. If you look on the right side of the stamp you will see the series date. This is the first year that stamp was issued for that series. Series usually only lasted a decade or two.
It would read- SERIES OF
19__

In that particular layout or format.

Yours appears to read _91_? The first number is missing but it would be a 1, the last number could be one of many but I feel confident in the "19 teens" being the date on that bond stamp. Here is more information, towards the bottom of the page-

Dating_Import_Stamps



UnNamed48-1.jpg
The stamps seen here represent five different cities, dates from 1913 to 1942 and four different hand and machine processes using both long and short filler. Trenton and Tampa were by far the two largest producers of cigars “Made in Bond.”

Two dates are found on the left side of Bond stamps: Long ones usually read “Act of Oct. 3, 1913” and short ones “Tariff Act of 1930.” The Series date on the right side is the more important as it gives the date a particular stamp was first issued. Series were typically used for a decade or two so Series numbers are not the date of the box.
 

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Here is bottom

Not sure what made in no 11 means
 

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Haven't found any info on the "Made in No. 11", but the rest of that stamp appears to be the "Caution Notice" and from the wording it gives us a timeline of when that particular caution notice was used.

Easy_Dating

CAUTION NOTICE

Intended as a warning to tax cheats who reused stamps or boxes, starting in 1868 a “Caution Notice” was required to be pasted on a cigar box. If there is no stamp, the Caution NOTICE can be useful to identify pre and post Golden Age boxes.



If the NOTICE is pasted on the box and the last three words are “for cigars again” the box dates between 1868 and 1880. All clean complete boxes from this period should be checked by an expert. Please contact the Museum for free appraisal.



If the NOTICE is pasted on the box and the last three words are “in such cases” the box is 99% likely to date from the heart of the Golden Age (1880-1910).



If the NOTICE is printed directly on the box it dates after 1910 when the law was changed to permit this cheaper method of applying the NOTICE. Wording remains the same 1880-1959.
 

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Also from the same site and page as above, if you don't have one of these stamps your box is before 1917 which I think your box may date that early.

So from the printed "Caution Notice" that you posted an image of and mentioned in my previous post and your box seemingly not having the Tax Class stamp, your box appears to date between 1910 and 1916

I'm haven't trouble copying the images from this site along with the text so I've copied the text and you'll have to visit the page to view the stamp images.....


After 1917 a Tax Class Notice is required to be on the front or bottom of every box for the next 50 years. There’s no easier way to tell at a glance whether a box is before 1917 or after 1917. Golden Age boxes don’t have tax paid notices. Machine age (1917-1959) boxes do. Modern (after 1960) boxes don’t.



if a tax class notice is pasted on and does not mention the price of the cigars, it dates 1917-1919. If the tax class notice is printed on and gives a range of selling prices, it dates 1919-1959.



OLD ABE is a very typical 1920’s box. You can see the Tax Class Notice on the right and the orange on blue tax stamp (1917-1942) on the left. Front or bottom, if there’s a Tax Class Notice on the box it can’t date before 1917.





1917-1919

On the front, usually pasted on

Nickel cigars were Class A

Dime cigars were Class C

Retail price of cigars not given







1919-1942

Printed on the front or bottom

Nickel cigars were Class A

Dime cigars were Class C

Cuban cigars were Class E







1942-1960

Printed, usually on the bottom

Nickel cigars were Class C

Dime cigars were Class E

Cuban cigars were Class G
 

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Call Bill Finck at Finck Cigar Co. in San Antonio, tell him Frank Charles says hi, I got the new catalog and ask him. He owns the brand. They have been manufactured for about 25-30 years, are made for him by Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras...1-800-221-0638 or 1-210-226-3825(San Antonio number(local). How do I know? I just read it out of the new catalog...Oh yeah, that is a sampler box. Charles the gReat of various sizes. Should be still available...
 

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What is the hidden compartment for.......thanks for all the info
 

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jtw1313 said:
What is the hidden compartment for.......thanks for all the info
Click to expand...

have to ask Bill, but I suspect it's for cigar cutter and matches or lighter. I've smoked a couple, they are ok, but I've never bought a box. I smoke Fuente Fuente Opus X and they are going to kill and bankrupt me. Great cigars, but pricey...
 

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jtw1313 said:
What is the hidden compartment for.......thanks for all the info
Click to expand...

I'm guessing it's not a "hidden compartment" per say but instead the piece of wood was some sort of divider between different types/favor of cigars.

Will the piece of wood stand upright in that section to act as a divider and the box still be able to close?
 

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