Antique Goldens Blue Ribbon Cigar Label - Its Mild - A J Golden Inc Embossed Gold Chromolithograph NOS 🚬

Could the Same Brand Wear Two Completely Different Faces? 🎗️

Cigar manufacturers rarely printed just one version of a popular label — different presses, different runs, and different years often produced genuine variations on the same brand identity. This is a second, distinct Blue Ribbon label from the same Pennsylvania house, and it's worth understanding how it differs from its sibling.

🎗️ What It Is

This is an original New Old Stock (NOS) embossed cigar label for the Blue Ribbon brand, produced by Golden's Cigar of Bonneauville, Pennsylvania, a documented manufacturer operating from 1895 to 1943. This particular printing measures 8¼ x 7 inches — a distinct format from other surviving Blue Ribbon labels — with genuine gold embossing worked into the design under real heat and pressure. It survives as unused printer's stock, never applied to a box.

🏭 Golden's Cigar — 48 Years in Bonneauville

Golden's Cigar operated continuously in Bonneauville, a small Adams County, Pennsylvania community, for 48 years, from 1895 until the last cigar came off their line in March 1943. That kind of longevity — spanning the turn of the century, the First World War, Prohibition, and into the Second World War — was genuinely rare for a small-town cigar manufacturer, most of which rose and folded within a decade. The Blue Ribbon brand was one of the company's flagship names throughout that run, and surviving labels like this one show that Golden's produced the brand across more than one design and format over the decades — a normal practice for an established brand that wanted to keep its packaging fresh while maintaining its name recognition.

🖨️ The Embossing

The gold embossing on this label was produced using a heated die pressed into the paper under real pressure, a premium technique reserved for brands with genuine market confidence. Multiple color passes built up the underlying design before the embossing pass added its final dimensional finish.

🖼️ Display Ideas

• 🥃 Pair it with the other Golden's Blue Ribbon label format for a side-by-side brand-evolution display.
• 🖼️ Frame it in a deep shadow box to let the embossing catch light from an angle.
• 📚 Add it to a Pennsylvania tobacco history collection.

🎁 Who Collects These

Cigar label collectors who specialize in a single brand's design evolution, Pennsylvania regional historians, and tobacco ephemera collectors broadly all value having multiple format variations from the same documented manufacturer.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from other Blue Ribbon labels?

This printing measures 8¼ x 7 inches, a distinct format from other surviving Golden's Blue Ribbon labels — evidence the brand was produced across multiple design runs during its 48-year history.

Is the embossing genuine?

Yes — raised under heat and pressure with a metal die, not printed flat.

Was this label ever used?

No — New Old Stock, surviving as unused printer's stock.