{"product_id":"antique-1930s-lord-roberts-embossed-cigar-label-heraldic-crest","title":"Antique 1930s Lord Roberts 🚬 Embossed Cigar Label","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Was Lord Roberts, and Why Was He on a Cigar Box? 🏰 An Antique 1930s Embossed Gold Cigar Label\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 5 1\/2\" x 2 1\/2\" ~ little to no wear\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\/dgkxvtvEFCs\" 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\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eLORD ROBERTS in big navy block capitals, pressed up out of the paper, and beside it a full coat of arms in gold and navy: a crown on top, a shield with a tower, a lion rampant, a striped diagonal band and three stars, all hung in a gold chain with crossed halberds behind it. Amazing gold embossed label. Turn it over and you can read the whole thing backward in the paper, that's how deep the embossing goes. That name is the only word on it - no maker, no town, no date - and it's new old stock, never glued to a box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCigar labels show you what antique advertising is all about, with the kind of graphics that lithography and embossing gave you and modern printing just can't reproduce. The raised work on labels like this was done in gold or bronze leaf, and the gold on these still catches the light. It was mostly a lost art after that era, and the printing on labels like this is unparalleled even to this day, in my opinion. My pictures seriously don't do it justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🎖️ Bobs\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrederick Sleigh Roberts was born at Cawnpore, India, in 1832, the son of a British general, and he spent his whole life in the Army. He won the Victoria Cross in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, but it was the Second Afghan War that made him famous: in August 1880 he marched about ten thousand men some three hundred miles from Kabul to Kandahar in about three weeks, through the mountains in the Afghan summer, to relieve the city, and the march became legend within weeks. When he was made a peer in 1892 he took the title Baron Roberts of Kandahar, and the British public took to calling him \"Bobs\" - Rudyard Kipling even wrote a poem by that name, and G. A. Henty put him in a boys' adventure novel, With Roberts to Pretoria.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the Boer War went badly at the end of 1899 - the run of defeats the British called Black Week - the government sent for Roberts, then sixty-seven. It was personal by then: his only surviving son, Freddy, had been mortally wounded at Colenso that December trying to save the guns, and won a Victoria Cross for it, making them one of only three fathers and sons ever to both hold it. Roberts landed at Cape Town in January 1900, turned the war around, and marched into Pretoria that June. He came home a hero, was made Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria and Waterford and a Knight of the Garter in 1901, and spent his last years warning Britain to get ready for a war with Germany. When it came he was eighty-two. He went to France in November 1914 to visit the Indian troops he'd soldiered with all his life, caught pneumonia, and died at St. Omer on November 14, 1914.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🚬 A British hero on a cigar box\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoberts' name was on everybody's lips from the Boer War until his death in 1914, and it didn't fade when he did. Cigar makers put famous generals on their labels all the time, and a crown and a lion told a buyer this was a quality smoke whether or not he knew a thing about heraldry. The shield on this label isn't Roberts' own coat of arms, though. His real arms are a blue shield with three gold stars. This is the kind of stock heraldry label artists put on a premium brand. The Lord Roberts brand came in more than one dress, too: there's a VERY MILD - DE LUXE label with the crest in the middle and the name arched over it, and a Lord Roberts Greetings to Father label. Ours is the simple one, crest on the left and the name stacked on the right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the artists who drew these were very good but desperate for work during that era, and got paid very little and received no recognition for it. Unfortunately, the majority of them will remain unknown, but we can keep their art alive forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e📅 How old is it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a 1930s label. Nothing printed on it carries a date, so the design dates it, and the cigar label trade puts this Lord Roberts crest at about 1930. It's the same crest drawing you see on the big VERY MILD - DE LUXE label. The brand was still turning out Father's Day labels in those years, too. Father's Day was only becoming a day for gifts in the 1920s, and by 1925 the tobacco trade was trying to set its date. That puts these a good fifteen years and more after Roberts died, and it tells you how long his name kept selling cigars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🖼️ About these labels\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery one I have is unused, 5 1\/2 by 2 1\/2 inches, on heavy paper stock, which is a big part of why they've stayed this bright. Imagine hanging this nearly 100-year-old antique advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! It frames up handsomely next to a Boer War print or a Kipling volume, or with other gold embossed cigar labels, and it's a natural for anybody who collects British military history or tobacciana. The supply is finite - nobody embosses gold cigar labels like this anymore, and once these last unused ones are framed and on walls, 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-frings-bros-corona-embossed-cigar-label-philadelphia-treasures\"\u003eAntique 1900s Frings Bros Corona Cigar Label 🏷 Gold Embossed Est 1867 Tobacco Ephemera\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-three-twins-embossed-cigar-label-howling-success-1900s-1920\"\u003eAntique Three Twins Cigar Box Label 🍼 Embossed Baby Trio Howling Success Tobacco Ephemera\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1930s-lord-roberts-very-mild-de-luxe-embossed-cigar-label\"\u003eAntique 1930s Lord Roberts Cigar Label 🚬 Embossed Heraldic Coat of Arms Crown Lion Shield Gold NOS Collectible\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":40769768063141,"sku":"VAG-7034830225573","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3274148000_kbl0_bf6314af-47f6-490e-87b7-4945e3a7ee60.jpg?v=1785354263","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1930s-lord-roberts-embossed-cigar-label-heraldic-crest","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}