The cigar store Indian or wooden Indian is an advertisement figure, in the likeness of a Native American, used to represent tobacconists. The figures are often three-dimensional wooden sculptures measuring from several feet tall up to life-sized. They are still occasionally used for their original advertising purpose, but are more often seen as decorations or advertising collectibles, with some pieces selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Because of the general illiteracy of the populace, early store owners used descriptive emblems or figures to advertise their shops' wares; for example, barber poles advertise barber shops, show globes advertised apothecaries and three gold balls represented pawn shops. American Indians and tobacco had always been associated because American Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans. [1] As early as the 17th century, European tobacconists used figures of American Indians to advertise their shops.
In 1667, King Charles II passed a law which forbade the use of overhead projecting signs because of the danger presented to passing traffic. [2] A Highlander figure indicated the sale of Scottish snuff, and a Blackamoor figure that tobacco from the Caribbean was available. [3]
Because European carvers had never seen a Native American, these early cigar-store "Indians" looked more like Africans with feathered headdresses and other fanciful, exotic features. These carvings were called "Black Boys" or "Virginians" in the trade. Eventually, the European cigar-store figure began to take on a more "authentic" yet highly stylized native visage, and by the time the smoke-shop figure arrived in the Americas in the late 18th century, it had become thoroughly "Indian." [4]
According to an 1890 article in The New York Times : [5]
The Times further notes that as the market became saturated with Indians, popular taste expanded to figures of Scotchmen, English officers with bearskins, Dolly Vardens, John L. Sullivan, Edwin Forrest in Roman garb, Turks, sultanas, Punch (of Punch and Judy), and plantation Blacks. The price of a small Indian was then $16, and full custom figures might cost $125. Most figures, however, were simply copied from existing ones. [5]
The Times article describes traditional fabrication techniques as follows. The wood was typically white pine, bought as logs at spar yards. The artist first blocked out a very rough outline by axe, guided by paper patterns. A hole was then bored into each end of the log, about 5 inches in depth, and a bolt placed into each. The log was then suspended from these bolts on supports so it could freely turn. The sculptor then used chisels, followed by finer carving tools, to create the finished figure. Arms and hands were created separately, then screwed into the body. The last steps were to paint it and set it up upon a stand. [5]
The cigar store Indian became less common in the 20th century for a variety of reasons. [6] Sidewalk-obstruction laws dating as far back as 1911 were one cause. [7] Later issues included higher manufacturing costs, restrictions on tobacco advertising, and increased sensitivity towards depictions of Native Americans, all of which relegated the figures to museums and antique shops. [8] Many also were destroyed during scrap drives for metal and wood during World War I and World War II. Cigar store figures are now viewed as folk art, and some models have become collector's items, drawing prices up to $500,000. [7] Modern replicas of cigar store Indians are still made for sale, some as cheap as $600. [7]
People within the Native American community often view such likenesses as offensive for several reasons. Some object because they are used to promote tobacco use as recreational instead of ceremonial. [7] Others object that they perpetuate a "noble savage" or "Indian princess" caricature or inauthentic stereotypes of Native people, [9] implying that modern individuals "are still living in tepees, that we still wear war bonnets and beads," [10] drawing parallels to the African-American lawn jockey. [11]
Mining the Museum, an important postmodernist exhibition of the Maryland Historical Society collection curated by Fred Wilson, prominently featured a room of cigar store Indians faced away from the viewer looking towards walls lined with pictures of "real" Native American figures. [12]
Totem poles are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast including northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth communities in southern British Columbia, and the Coast Salish communities in Washington and British Columbia.
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure, typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically brands use billboards to build their brands or to push for their new products.
Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object. The phrase may also refer to the finished product, from individual sculptures to hand-worked mouldings composing part of a tracery.
Nat Sherman is the brand name for a line of handmade cigars and "luxury cigarettes". The company, which began as a retail tobacconist, continued to operate a flagship retail shop, known as the "Nat Sherman Townhouse", located on 42nd Street, off Fifth Avenue, in New York City from 1930 to 2020. Corporate offices are now located at the foot of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
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A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retail business that sells tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specialized retailers might sell ashtrays, humidification devices, hygrometers, humidors, cigar cutters, and more. Books and magazines, especially ones related to tobacco are commonly offered. Items irrelevant to tobacco such as puzzles, games, figurines, hip flasks, walking sticks, and confectionery are sometimes sold.
Blackamoor is a type of figure and visual trope in European decorative art, typically found in works from the Early Modern period, depicting a man of sub-Saharan African descent, usually in clothing that suggests high status. Common examples of items and objects decorated in the blackamoor style include sculpture, jewellery, and furniture. Typically the sculpted figures carried something, such as candles or a tray. They were thus an exotic and lightweight variant for the "atlas" in architecture and decorative arts, especially popular in the Rococo period.
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