Vintage Vuelta Abajo

[lenguamor]

Wow!

You did the cigar justice much better than I could have hoped to, sharing it with friends like you did.

Great thread, great pics and I'm glad you enjoyed it. These are history now, all gone or in the collections of other brothers.

PS: I did see an empty box of these recently; it did not have the Chapin Grocery imprint, so apparently Sunkist did manufacture these for sale as stand-alone product.

BTW, that pic of the old cigar store blew me away. Can you imagine having just one of each of the boxes of cigars on display there?

[massphatness]

Just fabulous, Richard. Thanks for the wonderful pics and great story.

[Scottw]

Simply amazing review!! Thank you.

Originally Posted by lenguamor

Wow!

You did the cigar justice much better than I could have hoped to, sharing it with friends like you did.

Great thread, great pics and I'm glad you enjoyed it. These are history now, all gone or in the collections of other brothers.

PS: I did see an empty box of these recently; it did not have the Chapin Grocery imprint, so apparently Sunkist did manufacture these for sale as stand-alone product.

BTW, that pic of the old cigar store blew me away. Can you imagine having just one of each of the boxes of cigars on display there?

Thanks to your generosity passed through Scott that cigar is now a part of history.

Here are a couple more from that collection.






Here is one of John Bartosh later in life as the store was winding down.

In January 1959 John J. Bartosh locked the door of his Golden Eagle cigar, hung up a "closed" sign and ended 51 years in business at the same stand.
For seven years before he bought the store, Bartosh worked for its previous proprietor, John W. Potts, who opened the store in 1888

.

[Skywalker]

Makes me wish I could go back in time and smoke what they were smoking back then!!!

[lenguamor]

Oh, that second set has a lot greater detail; you can see a lot of the brand labels on the boxes in the display case.

You know what surprises me, is how many of those brands were Italian cigars; Toscanos or Sigarettos. They might have been made in Italy, or made here with Italian tobacco, or manufactured here from domestic tobacco - but in the rough, Italian style.

It just surprises me from the standpoint of how little demand there is now for cigars from that era in that style, compared to Clear Havanas and other domestically-made cigars; yet back then, they seemed to be quite popular.

Originally Posted by lenguamor

Oh, that second set has a lot greater detail; you can see a lot of the brand labels on the boxes in the display case.

You know what surprises me, is how many of those brands were Italian cigars; Toscanos or Sigarettos. They might have been made in Italy, or made here with Italian tobacco, or manufactured here from domestic tobacco - but in the rough, Italian style.

It just surprises me from the standpoint of how little demand there is now for cigars from that era in that style, compared to Clear Havanas and other domestically-made cigars; yet back then, they seemed to be quite popular.

Yes, not many blenders include the Italian leaf these days. I have heard Ozenger discuss it before.

If you are interested I can arrange for you to have an even higher resolution image of some of the photos I have posted here (PM me). One of the members of the cigar club sat next to me at the computer as we carefully examined the photos, identifying the brands. This is his assigned task for his initiation into the club.

This shop was also a rolling factory as this photo that includes John Bartosh indicates.


This photo was taken on the same day as the very first one in the post.

This shop received Havana leaf to roll their own cigars as this local newspaper ad indicates.



Historically it is important to note the racism implied by this ad. It was a dark time in this countries history when at the Federal level of government we had the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding the immigration of the Chinese.

Potts was the owner before Bartosh… and so concludes are history lesson for this morning