Antique Vieux Courcelles Embossed Cigar Label 🚬 ~ Exquisite Gold Design, 1900s-1920s

What Was Vieux Courcelles? 🚬 Vieux Courcelles "Gran Marca, Esquisitos" Gold Embossed Cigar Label

Size: 10 1/4" x 6 1/4" ~ This has very minor corner wear. I doubt you would see it in a frame, but please see the pictures and judge yourself.

Striking Gold embossed label. VIEUX COURCELLES sits in a bright lime-green oval, ringed by a dark band lettered GRAN MARCA across the top and ESQUISITOS across the bottom, with a fan of olive-green pleats radiating out behind it and big gold scrolls and rosettes embossed on either side. Most companies at the time used real gold flakes in the embossing.

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• GRAN MARCA
• VIEUX COURCELLES
• ESQUISITOS
• DEP. P.I.L. 3124, in tiny type at the lower right

Gran Marca and Esquisitos are the old cigar-trade way of saying "great brand" and "exquisite." The back is blank, with the embossing pressed through.

🌍 A European Cigar Label

Vieux Courcelles is French for "old Courcelles," and that French name together with the little DEP. line, short for déposé, "registered," on French-language labels, suggests a maker on the other side of the Atlantic.

🥇 The Gold Embossing Trade

Gold embossing was a whole trade of its own. In the late 1800s cigar labels were embossed and gilded with gold leaf or bronzing, and in 1889 Weidman Bros. & Moyer went into business as cigar box makers specializing in gold embossing on wood as well as printing cigar labels. By 1909 they were running factories in Womelsdorf and Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, and by 1905 there were 70,000 small cigar factories registered across the country, every one of them wanting a label that would stop a customer at the counter.

🖼️ Display

Picture this: an antique advertising label, beautifully framed and hanging on your wall as a unique piece of home decor. This label is sure to be a conversation starter in any room!

Cigar labels like this one are a window into the world of antique advertising, showcasing the beautiful graphics that Lithography provided. They are a testament to a lost art form that unfortunately faded after the 1920s. My pictures may not fully capture the quality of this label. Crafted on heavy paper stock, it retains its vibrant and new look over time.

Most of these artists were very good but desperate for work during that era. They got paid very little and received no recognition for their work. Unfortunately, most of these artists will remain unknown, but we can keep their art alive forever.