[Cigar box label, printed by a German firm, showing head-shoulders portrait of a man, facing right, superimposed over tropical waterfront scene, with six gold coins at bottom]

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Six gold coins sit along the bottom of this cigar box label, printed in color over a head-and-shoulders portrait of a man turned to the right against a tropical waterfront. The record credits the German firm Hermann Schött, A.G., of Rheydt in the Rhineland, and marks the sheet as "Blatt 4," so it was likely one of several designs in a set. Around 1930, many European cigar makers relied on colorful box labels like this one to suggest the exotic origins of their tobacco and to set one brand apart on crowded shop shelves. The coins and the seaport backdrop point to that commercial appeal, while the portrait shows how label designers borrowed the look of formal portraiture to lend a brand an air of trust and prestige.

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