{"product_id":"antique-1920s-first-cabinet-embossed-cigar-label-van-dam-grand-rapids","title":"Antique 1920s First Cabinet Cigar Label 🚬 Van Dam Cigar Co Grand Rapids Michigan Gold Embossed Founding Fathers Washington Jefferson Hamilton NOS","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWashington's First Cabinet on a Cigar Box 🏛️ An Antique 1920s First Cabinet Embossed Cigar Box Label, Van Dam Cigar Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 8 1\/2\" x 6 3\/4\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WT-s9hiN-Ys\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFIRST CABINET in red with a gold embossed outline across the top, and in a gold-embossed oval, the founders around a table, each one captioned: THOS. JEFFERSON, SEC. OF STATE; HENDRICK KNOX, SEC. OF WAR; JOHN ADAMS, VICE PRES.; GEO. WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT; and ALEX. HAMILTON, TREAS. Washington sits with his sword, Jefferson and Adams are seated at the table, and Knox and Hamilton stand. Across the bottom it says FIRST CABINET again with Van Dam Cigar Co., Grand Rapids Mich., and in small type TITLE AND DESIGN OWNED BY VAN DAM CIGAR CO. and CONSOLIDATED LITHOGRAPHING CORPORATION BROOKLYN N.Y. The embossing shows right through on the plain back. These were never pasted into a box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes, it really says Hendrick Knox. The Secretary of War was Henry Knox, and the label's spelling is a printer's slip that's on every one of these.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🏛️ The first cabinet\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen George Washington took office in 1789, the new government had three departments and an Attorney General, and he filled them with some of the sharpest minds of the Revolution: Thomas Jefferson at State, Alexander Hamilton at the Treasury, and his old artillery chief Henry Knox at War - the Boston bookseller who, in the winter of 1775-76, hauled the cannon of Fort Ticonderoga three hundred miles over snow to drive the British out of Boston - with John Adams as Vice President, a job Adams himself called the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived. The Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, didn't make it onto the label at all. Jefferson and Hamilton fought each other so hard over the country's future that their quarrel gave birth to America's first political parties. Putting that crowd on a cigar box said this smoke was as American and as distinguished as it gets.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🌷 Van Dam of Grand Rapids\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrand Rapids was a real cigar town, and Van Dam was one of its brands. The Grand Rapids Public Library's biography of Tunis Johnson tells the story: born in 1885, he joined his father's cigar business in 1905 - the G. J. Johnson Cigar Company that developed the Dutch Masters brand, the one with Rembrandt's Syndics of the Drapers' Guild on the box - and when the family sold out to a national company in 1919, Tunis started his own firm in 1921, which made its name with Van Dam cigars. He sold the company in 1945 and retired to Florida a few years later. A Dutch name for a cigar fit Grand Rapids, one of the most Dutch towns in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🖨️ Consolidated Lithographing of Brooklyn\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printer's line dates this printing. Consolidated Lithographing Corporation was formed in Brooklyn around 1925, when Jacob A. Voice merged with Wm. Steiner \u0026amp; Sons, whose roots went back to Steiner \u0026amp; Rosenthal in 1884 - one of the big New York cigar-label houses. So this label is 1925 or later, which fits Van Dam's heyday. Most copies of First Cabinet you'll see carry a red 6 cent, 6 for 35 cent price box in the upper corner; this printing has no price box at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🏛️ About these\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery one I have is unused, 8 1\/2 by 6 3\/4 inches. Frame it for a history buff, a Grand Rapids wall or a cigar room. The supply is finite - nobody's printing Van Dam labels again, and once these last unused ones are framed, they'll be very difficult to acquire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-victory-embossed-cigar-label-roman-gladiator-1900s-1920s\"\u003eAntique Victory Cigar Label 🏛️ Embossed Roman Gladiator NOS 1900s–1920s W.C. Frutiger \u0026amp; Co.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-bb-monogram-gold-embossed-cigar-label\"\u003eAntique BB Monogram Gold Embossed Cigar Label 📜 1900s-1920s Red \u0026amp; Gold Floral\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-antique-1900s-1920s-signal-gold-embossed-cigar-label-treasures\"\u003eAntique “Signal” Gold Embossed Cigar Label 🚬 American Lithographic Co 1900s 1920s NOS\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40886621143205,"sku":"VAG-7066410057893","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3356164846_5xr0.jpg?v=1785355210","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1920s-first-cabinet-embossed-cigar-label-van-dam-grand-rapids","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}