2024-01 Raynors Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/21/2024
This is an antique reverse painted two pane window cigar store sign, 19" x 32". One pane shows the blanketed Native American Indian smoking. The second pane has "CIGARS" painted vertically. The sign dates to the late 1800's and in very good condition. We were able to find a comparable sold by North American Auction Company in their February 23, 2019, Great American West Sale - American Indian, $600. That one had a very similar Indian but did not have the second panel: (https://www.bidsquare.com/online-auctions/north-american-auction/antique-reverse-painted-glass-cigar-sign-1298617) 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 barbershops, show globes advertised apothecaries and the three gold balls represent pawnshops. American Indians and tobacco had always been associated because American Indians introduced tobacco to Europeans, and the depiction of native people on smoke-shop signs was almost inevitable. As early as the seventeenth century, European tobacconists used figures of American Indians to advertise their shops.
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