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 

 Punchlines?

Many hundred-year-old puns and jests are easy to decipher and appreciate today. But some of the old jokes, perhaps referring to a popular turn of phrase, a stage role, a contemporary stereotype, or local characters, are tantalizingly opaque to modern students of the vintage cigar box.

BERLIN OLD BOYS
BERLIN OLD BOYS
Trimmed nailed wood box (25)
Factory 21 IRD 32
W. M. Schliemann, Berlin, Ont.
CMC 2001.185.25 Tony Hyman Collection

Some versions of this cigar box label place a rectangle of mirrored silver between the donkeys, to make clear just who the third member of "we three" is.

MANNESS'S CUT-OFF MANNESS'S CUT-OFF
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 16 IRD 32
Sam. R. Manness, London, Ont.
CMC 2001.185.14 Tony Hyman Collection

DON'T ARGUE
DON'T ARGUE
Trimmed Wood cigar box lid
Con Jones, Vancouver, B.C.
CNC 2001.185.37 Tony Hyman Collection

Sports entrepreneur Con Jones came to Vancouver, B.C. from Australia in the early 1900s. He opened a successful chain of pool halls and tobacco shops. His slogan, "Don't Argue! Con Jones Sells Fresh Tobacco", and his trademark image, reminiscent of a vaudeville comedy team, were featured on all his tobacco products and comprised Vancouver's first neon advertising sign.

HAROLD H.
HAROLD H.
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 1 IRD 32 Series of 1897
Brener Bros., London, Ont.
CMC 2003.46.47

Harold H. and Ace are virtually the same images, used by two different London, Ontario cigar makers. One claims that the horse pictured is his own. Were these brands a bantering conversation between the two men? Not a wild presumption for the collegial world of 19th-century London cigar makers.

CAPADURA
CAPADURA
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 3 Port 20D Series of 1915
Brener Bros., London, Ont.
CMC 2004.122.1

WHO'S BEEN HERE?
WHO'S BEEN HERE?
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 2 IRD 14 Series of 1897
Possibly J. M. Fortier Ltd., Joliette, Que.
CMC 2003.46.84

A Victorian domestic drama on a cigar box label: cigars are missing, and a husband knows it was not he who smoked them. Missing cigars could only constitute evidence of a tryst—or at least an undisclosed male guest—in a society where it was conventionally men who smoked the cigars.

CONDUCTOR'S PUNCH
CONDUCTOR'S PUNCH
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 9 IRD 28 Series of 1897
Fred Keil, Waterloo, Ont.
CMC 2001.185.18 Tony Hyman Collection

Presumably manufacturer Fred Keil's pun on the Punch brand cigars made by his London, Ontario neighbour, George Kelly. Besides a picture of himself, Mr. Keil also includes one of his horse, "Dalmoor"—perhaps a response to the horse-inspired brands of fellow London manufacturers, Brener Bros. and Hy Simon?

NO MATCH NO MATCH
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 13 IRD 32
B. F. Honsinger, St. Thomas, Ont. ca. 1897
CMC 2003.116.7

ON HAND ON HAND
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 3 IRD 6 Series of 1897
A. Isaacs, St. John, N.B.
CMC 2004.122.15

OUR PRESCRIPTION OUR PRESCRIPTION
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 4 IRD 32 Series of 1883
Possibly J. Payne or H. Simon, London, Ont.
CMC 2004.216.13

QUAIL ON TOAST QUAIL ON TOAST
Trimmed nailed wood box (50)
Factory 3 IRD 34
O'Brien Bros. Chatham, Ont. ca. 1897
CMC D-13662

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