Cigar Store Wooden Indians

I’ve always liked cigar store indians, so here’s some information I’ve learned about them. The Cigar store Indian or Wooden Indian is an old advertising figure made for cigar shops, much like barber poles advertise barber shops or the pawn shops have 3 gold balls. The indians were often three-dimensional wooden sculptures several feet tall – up to life-sized. They are still occasionally used for their original advertising purpose, like the one pictured above, but are more often seen in decorative uses, or for older ones, as collectibles.

HISTORY
Because of the general illiteracy of the population, early store owners used descriptive emblems or figures to advertise their shops. Indians and tobacco had always been associated because Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans, and it the depiction of native people on smoke-shop signs followed naturally. As early as the seventeenth century, tobacconists from Europe used figures of Indians to advertise their shops. Because European carvers had never seen a Native American, these early cigar-store wooden Indians looked more like black slaves with feathered headdresses and other fanciful features. These carvings were called “Virginians” or “Black Boys” in the trade. Eventually, the European cigar-store figures began to take on a more authentic yet highly stylized native visage, and by the time the smoke-shop figure arrived in America in the early eighteenth century, it had become thoroughly “Indian.”

The early cigar store Indians could be purchased as either male or female and were fashioned both in cast iron and the far more popular wood. In the early years the female figure, with or without papoose, was by far the more popular and outnumbered male figures four to one. Occasionally, the female wooden indian was adorned with a headdress of tobacco leaves in place of the more standard feathers. Male wooden indians were often dressed in the warbonnets of the Plains Indians.

TODAY
The cigar store Indian became less common in the 20th century for a variety of reasons. New sidewalk-obstruction laws, higher manufacturing costs, and increased racial sensitivity relegated the figures to museums and antique shops. To some, the cigar store Indian figure is considered the native equivalent of the black lawn jockey—a stereotypical and thus demeaning portrayal of Native Americans; however, both of these types of figures are still made for sale and cigar store Indians can still be found outside many cigar stores just like ours. The TopHat Indian is kind of short and mean looking, but hey, he was on sale for a good deal when we needed him!

TRIVIA

• There is an episode of Seinfeld known as “The Cigar Store Indian“
• The dog in the picture above is Nikki, short for Nickel. She’s the store mascot. Here’s directions to the TopHat Tobacco Kirkwood Cigar Shop, come and visit!

Written by Eric Cigar Reviews and Related Topics www.tophatcigar.com