Need help...Detroit Hand Made Cigar

miniangel · December 2013

I have a cigar box that I cannot find any info on. Nothing shows online. It's pretty old. Wood box. Reads: Detroit Hand Made Cigar. Mazer Cigar Mfg Co. Makers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Rain · December 2013

Hmm, can you post a picture? Photobucket is the easiest route, IMHO.

blutattoo · December 2013

miniangel:
I have a cigar box that I cannot find any info on. Nothing shows online. It's pretty old. Wood box. Reads: Detroit Hand Made Cigar. Mazer Cigar Mfg Co. Makers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Found this online - 1933 J. Mazer cigar firm established in Detroit. Found the info here:

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?15985-Detroit-Cigar-Mfg-Co-History

miniangel · December 2013

Thanks for the replies. I was going to post a picture but didn't see anywhere to attach on here. I will do so tomorrow when I can get on my laptop. I did see that link you posted but I can't find any boxes that resemble the one I have.

kuzi16 · December 2013

"detroit hand made" refers to the fact that it was hand made in detroit and that could mean that it pedates 1919 when the first totally machine made or automated cigar machines made it to the US

"Mazer Cigar Mfg Co." is the name of the factory that produced cigars such as Humar that was based out of detroit and ohio. if i am not mistaken this is a cigar/tobacco company from almost cival war era.
though tobacco was more popular to grow in the south, the civil war made it more popular in north for a good period of time. (some of that is still going on with cigarette tobacco, but a few places still grow for cigars, such as connecticut and wisconson.) because of detroits location it was actually a major hub of tobaco production and distribution for many years. this area was also one of the firs major production industries to be unionized. the Union mark is the shown with the word "Makers."

this union was made up of mostly of german and polish women who were the rollers of the cigars.

many other brands were in the area... a short list may include but are not limited to:
San Telmo Cigar
Tegge Cigar Co
American Cigar
Mazer Cigar Factory
Bagley Tobacco
Cadillac Cigar Box
Detroit Snuff Co
General Cigar Co
Michigan Cigar Box
Webster Cigar
Ritter Cigar Box

the box has little value. depending on condition anywhere from $1 - $45
the brand is not very long lived and most cigar manufacturing in the US moved to the West Virginia and PA area after the the development of cigar making machines.

jgkamin · December 2013

kuzi16:

"detroit hand made" refers to the fact that it was hand made in detroit and that could mean that it pedates 1919 when the first totally machine made or automated cigar machines made it to the US

Wouldn't the part of the name "hand made" be more of an indication it came later, once machines started popping up? They wouldn't need to specify they were hand made if that's all you have at the time.

kuzi16 · December 2013

JGKAMIN:
kuzi16:

"detroit hand made" refers to the fact that it was hand made in detroit and that could mean that it pedates 1919 when the first totally machine made or automated cigar machines made it to the US

Wouldn't the part of the name "hand made" be more of an indication it came later, once machines started popping up? They wouldn't need to specify they were hand made if that's all you have at the time.

maybe.
the only issue is that after machines were made the business in detroit fell off. it is a good point and it could very well be from the short time period after the machines came into existence but before the factories closed.

its really hard to tell because there were so many of these little cigar companies that showed up and made very few cigars that it is hard to learn about many of them. none of them were huge names and none of them lasted very long. info on most of them is limited at best.