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Comment by George Forster on September 30, 2014 at 12:38am

Ron and Robert,

Thanks so much for the info!

After looking more closely at the tax stamp, I can see "10 28 47" perforated on the second line of the cancellation.

I thought it probably wasn't a highly collectible box.  Time to give it new life! It's been storing old keys for the past 67 years.

Robert, thanks for sharing your expertise. I appreciate it.

George

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on September 29, 2014 at 6:34pm

To follow on from robert's replies, you may find this helpful in your attempt to date the box:

http://cigarhistory.info/Dating/Dating_Tax_Stamps.html

Comment by robert jones on September 29, 2014 at 6:21pm

I haven't found any info on factory 484 yet so I'm guessing it's not a highly collectable box.

Finger joint corners along with the 4" tax stamp places it between 1916 and 1960.

The type of box is called boite nature and there are a ton of that style out there so unless it's something unusual the boxes aren't worth much as collectables.

The boxes do sound great for instruments.

You might be able to contact the club to see if there are any records as to the company name of the cigar factory.

Yeah most people don't realize the US, particularly Penn. and NY, made most of the cigars in the world for about a century.

Comment by George Forster on September 29, 2014 at 12:50pm

He was born in 1913; so I'm glad he was at least 3 before he started smoking...

I just now googled Wisconsin Club; It's a private club, still sporting the same logo!

Anyway, Robert, thanks for the response. There is no assessor's name, but that doesn't matter. I would guess that the Wisconsin Club bought their own-branded cigars from some factory, in Manhattan.  I never realized that so many cigars were made in the US, at that time.  12% of the Federal Tax revenue in the 1880's came from cigars, ?!

I want to turn it into a violin. Is there any possible collector's value on this box that says I shouldn't cut it up? 

Comment by robert jones on September 29, 2014 at 2:47am

It looks like a 4" tax stamp which would put it after 1916.

Is there any information on the tax stamp other than the amount? Name of the tax assessor may be on the stamp and that would narrow down the possible time period for manufacture.

See the thing is at one time there were 1,525 cigar manufacturers in the 3rd district so without additional info it'll take a bit of luck to find which one.