Raynor HCA 2013-01
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/10/2013
Great c1928 original advertising store card for "HAMBONE SWEETS" CIGARS with full color illustration of J.P. Alley's popular character "Hambone" in an airplane headed to Paris. "Hambone" was the nickname of TOM HUNLEY, a folk-wisdom spouting ex-slave interviewed late in his life by a young Memphis editorial cartoonist JAMES PINCKNEY "J.P." ALLEY who was taken by Hunley's humorously philosophical tone. Alley turned the old man's pithy observations on life into a syndicated illustrated column called "HAMBONE'S MEDITATIONS" which first appeared in 1916 and was soon followed by two books. When J.P. died in 1934, his son Calvin took over his work, and the Hambone character continued in newspapers until 1968. Starting in the late 1920's, two different cigar companies were licensed to market inexpensive cigars under the character's name with Alley's illustration. The image on the cigar box label is a satire on Lindberg's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. This 7" round cardboard ceiling fan-light hanger was designed by Alley and used as store advertising favors by William C. Frutiger& Co. of Red Lion, PA, owner-maker of the cigar brand based on Alley's character in the late 1920's.
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