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Cigar Store Indian
1886
This full-sized example of a cigar store Indian stood outside the Levy Cigar
Store at 53 Margaret Street in Plattsburgh from 1886 until 1910. It may have
been made in the New York studio of Samuel Robb, who was a prolific carver of
such symbols.
The American Indian symbol was used widely on tavern and shop signs of the
eighteenth century. When the use of tobacco proliferated in the nineteenth
century, the Indian inevitably became the visual image used by tobacco shops to
advertise their wares.
The introduction of mild tobacco from Cuba increased the use of cigars. Soldiers
serving in Mexico and California during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s
found cigar smoking to be a new pleasure. As a result, cigar making became a
successful new industry and many tobacco shops were opened.
Plattsburgh became a cigar-making center in the 1860s when the Scheier family
opened a business here. Other cigar making families included the Merkels,
Mendelsohns, Levys, and Schiffs.
As late as 1909, ten firms were making cigars in Plattsburgh. Their cigar trade
prospered until the 1930s when cigarettes and pipes began to replace cigars.
We are fortunate to have this life size statue on loan from the
Levy family of Plattsburgh, NY.
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