Box Manufacturing, Dispatchv @museum.de

Before the cigar was packed in a box and given a band, the sorters at the factory carefully examined the goods.

The firm’s book-keeper didn’t count individual cigars or boxes; they dealt in “mille”. One mille is a thousand cigars. So smaller numbers are given as fractions, for instance 1/20, in other words, 50 cigars.

Cigar boxes were mostly made from a type of wood from Africa called okoumé. For more expensive cigars, better quality cedar wood was used. In the late 20th century, the range was expanded to include cardboard cigar boxes. The boxes were also made here at the factory. Take a look at the rear corner of the room, on the right. Those are the machines required: a bench-type circular saw to cut the little boards to size, a nailing machine to assemble the boxes, and a branding machine to sear the brand names into the wood. The labelling machine decorated the box with ornamental borders and a cover picture. Finally, the revenue stamp was added, and the box was ready for market.

As you walk on into the next room, look towards the wall, where you’ll see several powder machines. This type of machine dusted powder over the moistened cigars. It was a method designed to standardise the colour of cigars and eliminate variations. You can see the result in the display case opposite. The Gute Ernte 20 or Good Harvest 20 range has a smooth coating of powder – which was made by grinding up the ribs of tobacco leaves.