The RUMIDOR
Its secrets revealed....
Click the left triangular play button on the control panel below to hear some fitting music.
The title is not too difficult to guess, but is given at the end of this article.
Chris Rutter kindly sent us these pictures of a Rumidor decorated with the PARADISE BIRD & TREE with CLOUD 3144 pattern. These beg the question, what exactly is a Rumidor and what is known of The Rumidor Corporation, who registered the name as a trade mark?
As far as we know, nothing has been published on this curiosity, or the company that patented the Rumidor trade mark. However, I can throw some light on these unusual items and those who were involved with their manufacture. Clearly, we are looking at a type of humidor to keep tobacco, cigars and cigarettes moist, but read on....
The secret of the Rumidor is revealed by the writing on the refill, which tells us that the moistening agent is rum. Hence the name!
Amongst tobacco aficionados, there is some debate as to whether or not rum infusion improved flavour, but clearly it was a excellent piece of marketing on the part of the Rumidor Corporation, whose office was at 501 Fifth Avenue, New York. By 1929 adverts for their products appeared in magazines and newspapers. Below, is one of these from The New Yorker with an image of the magazine's cover for 2 March 1929, the date of the advertisement.
The Rumidor Corporation's 1929 publicity shows the cylindrical body of a metal Rumidor covered in Alpina lizard skin with what appears to be wickerwork covering the domed lid. This version of the Rumidor and the cigarette case and lighter, also shown in the advert, were made for the American Branch of Benson & Hedges, who by 1928 was independent of British Company. Exotic materials such as lizard, snake, alligator and sharkskin (shagreen) were very fashionable in the Art Deco period (and the reason why Carlton Ware made coffee sets with simulated shagreen decorations).
On the right are three more different metal Rumidors, one in hammered copper, one in copper with a leather covering and one made from tin-plate, which has been printed with a hunting scene.
Chris's Carlton Ware example shown at the beginning of this article is the larger version, as is the one on the right decorated with CHINESE BIRD & CLOUD 3274. The picture far right shows the smaller, more squat container. This is decorated with the HUNT SCENES pattern, similar to the decoration on the tin-plated Rumidor above.
The humidor, on which the Rumidor was based, was invented by Richard D. Zucker. He assigned his 1927 patent to The Rumidor Corporation in 1929. You can view his original US patent with its drawings and description by clicking here
© Harvey Pettit 2010.
The title of the music excerpt is Smoke Gets in Your Eyes composed by Jerome Kern. It was written for the 1933 operetta Roberta. To see Fred Astair & Ginger Rogers performing this number in their 1935 film adaptation, click on the image below. Sheer elegance and frock! And, as Ginger Roger's said of much of her dancing with Astaire, "I did it all backwards and in high heels"!