Binding Tie Cigars 1908 Hat

Although the first tobacco plantations were set up in Virginia in 1612, tobacco was smoked only in pipes in the colonies. The cigar itself is thought not to have arrived until after 1762, when Israel Putnam, an American general in the Revolutionary War, returned to his home in Connecticut from Cuba with a selection of Havana cigars, and large amounts of Cuban tobacco. Before long, cigar makers were popping up in cities everywhere and American-made cigars using both import and domestic tobacco were in high demand. One such maker hailed from Philidelphia, Pennsylvania in 1908. Going by the name Binding Tie and leveraging artwork filled with Masonic symbolism and imagery, this particular maker remains shrouded in mystery...