The First Images of the Hunters &
Frankau Anniversario 225 Cabinet
The year 1790 was memorable for many things; in Britain Pitt the younger was Prime Minister and
William Bligh returned to England with report of the mutiny on the Bounty. Across the channel our
neighbours celebrated the first anniversary of the French Revolution and in New York President
Washington gave the first state of the Union address.
More importantly for cigar lovers; in England the
forerunner of what is today Hunters & Frankau
was founded.
As the company that supplies Cuban cigars and
happiness to so many British cigar lovers the
company has always been known for their love of
a party and the Directors of Hunters & Frankau
started planning this celebration some five years
ago.
Naturally, a special cigar was at the forefront of
their plans and the cigars and their packagings
were to take historic design cues from the
companies 225 years.
First they selected Ramon Allones for the brand
because the Hunters side of the company owned
the factory in Havana between 1911 and 1927. The
shape of the cigar also has historical significance.
It’s a Gordito size (5½” by 50 ring gauge) with a
pointed (cabeza tumbada) head, like a 109, typical
of the shape of Havanas in the 1920s when they
owned the brand.
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But how to present the cigars? It was decided to
make historic reference here too. Looking back
to the period from the 1880’s to the 1940s when
Cuban cigars were sold to customers in Great
Britain in wardrobe-style cabinets containing
anything from 100 up to 10,000 cigars, they
chose to produce 225 replicas of these cabinets as
humidors containing 100 cigars each. The cigars
themselves come in bundles of 25 tied with a
silk ribbon inside slide lid boxes, a pack that was
originated for cigars destined for large cabinets.
Hence these slide lid boxes came to be known as
‘Cabinet Selection’.
With the design concept decided, Hunters’ team
looked around for someone to make the humidors.
They decided on the Milan based company DeART.
I asked Jemma Freeman why they selected DeART.
She told me that they had been hugely impressed
by the work they had seen around London where
DeART have installed many humidors. “Their
work is exemplary” she said, “they have been a
pleasure to work with on this project.”