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Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

ART NOUVEAU STYLE

In its sinuous lines and flamboyant curves inspired by the natural world, antique Art Nouveau furniture reflects a desire for freedom from the stuffy social and artistic strictures of the Victorian era. The Art Nouveau movement developed in the decorative arts in France and Britain in the early 1880s and quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States.

ORIGINS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN

CHARACTERISTICS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN

  • Sinuous, organic and flowing lines
  • Forms that mimic flowers and plant life
  • Decorative inlays and ornate carvings of natural-world motifs such as insects and animals 
  • Use of hardwoods such as oak, mahogany and rosewood

ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

Art Nouveau — which spanned furniture, architecture, jewelry and graphic design — can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life. Although Art Deco and Art Nouveau were both in the forefront of turn-of-the-20th-century design, they are very different styles — Art Deco is marked by bold, geometric shapes while Art Nouveau incorporates dreamlike, floral motifs. The latter’s signature motif is the "whiplash" curve — a deep, narrow, dynamic parabola that appears as an element in everything from chair arms to cabinetry and mirror frames.

The visual vocabulary of Art Nouveau was particularly influenced by the soft colors and abstract images of nature seen in Japanese art prints, which arrived in large numbers in the West after open trade was forced upon Japan in the 1860s. Impressionist artists were moved by the artistic tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking, and Japonisme — a term used to describe the appetite for Japanese art and culture in Europe at the time — greatly informed Art Nouveau. 

The Art Nouveau style quickly reached a wide audience in Europe via advertising posters, book covers, illustrations and other work by such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha. While all Art Nouveau designs share common formal elements, different countries and regions produced their own variants.

In Scotland, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh developed a singular, restrained look based on scale rather than ornament; a style best known from his narrow chairs with exceedingly tall backs, designed for Glasgow tea rooms. Meanwhile in France, Hector Guimard — whose iconic 1896 entry arches for the Paris Metro are still in use — and Louis Majorelle produced chairs, desks, bed frames and cabinets with sweeping lines and rich veneers. 

The Art Nouveau movement was known as Jugendstil ("Youth Style") in Germany, and in Austria the designers of the Vienna Secession group — notably Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich — produced a relatively austere iteration of the Art Nouveau style, which mixed curving and geometric elements.

Art Nouveau revitalized all of the applied arts. Ceramists such as Ernest Chaplet and Edmond Lachenal created new forms covered in novel and rediscovered glazes that produced thick, foam-like finishes. Bold vases, bowls and lighting designs in acid-etched and marquetry cameo glass by Émile Gallé and the Daum Freres appeared in France, while in New York the glass workshop-cum-laboratory of Louis Comfort Tiffany — the core of what eventually became a multimedia decorative-arts manufactory called Tiffany Studios — brought out buoyant pieces in opalescent favrile glass. 

Jewelry design was revolutionized, as settings, for the first time, were emphasized as much as, or more than, gemstones. A favorite Art Nouveau jewelry motif was insects (think of Tiffany, in his famed Dragonflies glass lampshade).

Like a mayfly, Art Nouveau was short-lived. The sensuous, languorous style fell out of favor early in the 20th century, deemed perhaps too light and insubstantial for European tastes in the aftermath of World War I. But as the designs on 1stDibs demonstrate, Art Nouveau retains its power to fascinate and seduce.

There are ways to tastefully integrate a touch of Art Nouveau into even the most modern interior — browse an extraordinary collection of original antique Art Nouveau furniture on 1stDibs, which includes decorative objects, seating, tables, garden elements and more.

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Style: Art Nouveau
Cigar Box with Fine Fine Miniature Alphons Mucha's "Amethyst" Poster Salimbeni
Located in Firenze, FI
Rectangular rounded cigar box with vertical opening in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine miniature hand-painted in tempera on vegetable iv...
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1970s Italian Vintage Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Sterling Silver

Novelty Great Western Railway Bogie Coal Wagon Humidor
Located in Northampton, GB
Realistically Formed  From our Boxes collection, we are pleased to offer this novelty Great Western Railway Bogie Coal Wagon Humidor. The humidor carved in oak modelled as a novelty...
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Early 20th Century British Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Metal

Pocket Cigarette Case Hunting Dogs Miniature hand painted Sterling Silver Enamel
Located in Firenze, FI
Rectangular table cigarette box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guillochè and fine miniature hand painted...
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1980s Italian Vintage Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

Materials

Sterling Silver, Enamel

Antique Sterling Silver Cigar Box
Located in Braintree, GB
Antique sterling silver cigar box Wood interior. Maker: Unknown (maker mark faded) Made in England, Birmingham, 1912 Fully hallmarked. ...
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1910s British Vintage Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

Materials

Sterling Silver

Cigar Set Art Nouveau Barbotine by Jean Bernard De Bruyn, 1900
Located in Paris, FR
Art Nouveau style cigar tobacco set tabac made in Barbotine faience ceramic by famous De Bruyn, 1900s. Plate L 32 cm, W 28 cm, D 4cm Jars D 4.5, H 7...
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19th Century Belgian Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

Materials

Ceramic, Faience

Gorham Athenic Cigar Box with Cecil Aldin Enameled Plaque and Silver Decoration
Located in Cincinnati, OH
This fabulous circa 1902 cedar lined cigar box was made by Gorham as part of the company's Athenic range, introduced at the turn of the 20th century. The 3 pound 10 ounce rectangular mixed metal box has a copper body and bears decorative sterling silver ornamentation. The box rests on four silver pad form feet. The piece has a hinged lid which features a colorful inset enameled plaque at the center. The charming scene depicts an image after well regarded British artist and illustrator Cecil Aldin's 1830 work "The Oxford Coach". The underside is fully hallmarked and bears a Gorham date symbol which corresponds to 1902. This unusual collectible box...
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Early 20th Century American Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

Materials

Sterling Silver, Copper, Enamel

Cigar Set Art Nouveau Barbotine by Jean Bernard De Bruyn, 1900
Located in Paris, FR
Art Nouveau style cigar tobacco set tabac made in Barbotine faience ceramic by famous De Bruyn, 1900s. Plate L 32 cm, W 28 cm, D 4cm Jars D 4.5, H 7cm D ...
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19th Century Belgian Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

Materials

Ceramic, Faience

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Cigar Humidor, Estate Pipe Wall Cabinet, Black Forest Brienz Wood Carved Antique
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20th Century Sterling Silver Italian Gilded and Enameled Table Box
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Cigar Humidor in the Form of an Icebox
Located in Essex, MA
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Vintage Leather Cigar Case W. B Corter
Located in Oxfordshire, GB
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Edwardian Amboyna Wood Humidor by Dunhill
Located in Essex, MA
Rectangular with hinged lid opening to a tin lined interior with the Alfred Dunhill label. No key.
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Edwardian Amboyna Wood Humidor by Dunhill
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H 9.13 in W 13.5 in D 9.5 in
Austrian Silver & Enamel Horse Snuff Box
Located in Newark, England
The box of rectangular shape with faceted corners topped with an enamel scene featuring three horses grazing by the watering trough amongst a sunburst enamel background. The interior...
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Austrian Silver & Enamel Horse Snuff Box
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Italian Art-Deco Humidor
Located in Newport Beach, CA
Silver plated, art-deco humidor featuring reproductions of the famous Bassae Frieze which depicts a battle between the Trojans and the Amazons.
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Italian Art-Deco Humidor
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Antique Japanese Meiji-Era Silver Box with Iris Flowers
Located in New York, NY
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Fine German 0.800 Silver Art Nouveau Cigarette Box
Located in Vienna, AT
Nice and well preserved cigarette box, showing a young Lady‘s head on the frontside. Hallmarked with the Crown and Moon stamp and made of 800/1000 Fine Silver. Closes fine and smooth...
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Fine German 0.800 Silver Art Nouveau Cigarette Box
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Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Bronze Cigar Cutter by, Tiffany Studios
Located in Englewood, NJ
An Early 20th Century American Art Nouveau cast and gilt bronze Cigar Cutter by, Tiffany Studios decorated in an aztec like pattern and finished in...
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Art Nouveau Sterling Silver Cigarette Case Connell, London, 1902
By George Lawrence Connell
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Art Nouveau sterling silver cigarette case London 1902, George Lawrence Connell. Rectangular concave form, the front with art nouveau stylised decoration in relief, interior lightly ...
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Early 1900s Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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20th Century Art Nouveau Wooden Box with Marquetry Works, Austria circa 1900
Located in Lichtenberg, AT
Absolutely outstanding, large wooden Art Nouveau box with delicate maple marquetry from Austria around 1900. Elaborately made of fine mahogany, this impressive early 20th century box was veneered with extraordinary rosewood showing an amazing looking grain. This highly decorative box shows a gorgeous framing with maple wood on all edges and elegant curved maple thread pattern around the whole box which look awesome and build a fantastic contrast to the beautiful dark palisander veneer. On top of the hinged lid - which is protected by a small golden chain so that the large cover can´t fall backwards - you can find an artfully inlayed frame made of very fine maple threads additionally adorned by leaf like designs with arrows in each corner. Standing on four small ebonized wooden balls, this real rare and exceptional large wooden box...
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Early 20th Century Austrian Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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WMF Jugendstil Silver Plate Cigarette or Jewellery Box C.1920
Located in Toronto, Ontario
WMF Jugendstil silver plate Cigarette or Jewellery Box C.1920. The box on four bun feet, rectangular in shape; the cover with oval central slight...
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Early 20th Century German Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Art Nouveau Metal Chest/ Box Hammer Finish, Handmade, Hungary, circa 1900
Located in Lichtenberg, AT
One of a kind Art Nouveau Metal Chest or Box elaborately handmade by the artist in Hungary around 1900. Designed in the style of a treasure chest, this uncommon metal box shows a bea...
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Early 20th Century Hungarian Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Austrian Silver and Enamel Cigarette Case, Antique, circa 1910
Located in Nuernberg, DE
An exceptional, fine and impressive antique Austrian silver and enamel cigarette case a nice addition to your silver smoking related sil...
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1910s Austrian Vintage Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Oakwood Travel Box with Silvered Brass Applications, Austria, circa 1900
Located in Lichtenberg, AT
Huge solid oakwood travel box with silvered brass applications from a noble Austrian household, circa 1900. Just see the size beside the double pint beer mug on picture #2! Beautiful...
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WMF Jugendstil Secessionist Large Jewelry or Cigar Box, Germany, circa 1906
Located in Toronto, Ontario
WMF Jugendstil secessionist silver plate large jewelry or cigar box, Germany, circa 1906. The box of rectangular shape on four turned stylized supports, ...
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Early 1900s German Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Art Nouveau Brass Repoussé Box with Stylized Fleur-de-Lis and Foliate Motifs
Located in New York, NY
This elegant Art Nouveau box was realized in the United States, circa 1900. It features a volumetric rectangular body with stylized fleur-de-lis, foliate and foliate motifs suggestin...
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Early 1900s American Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Jugendstil Nouveau Secessionist Brass Box Carl Deffner Germany, circa 1910
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jugendstil Nouveau secessionist brass box, Carl Deffner Germany, circa 1910. The large rectangular box on four bun supports, stylized foliate hinged cover...
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Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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19th Century French Art Nouveau Sterling Silver Tobacco or Pill Box
Located in Sofia, BG
Small and delicate sterling silver round box decorated with an iris flower on the top that may be used as a tobacco or pill box. France, circa 1890 ...
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Late 19th Century French Antique Art Nouveau Cigar Boxes and Humidors

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Art Nouveau cigar boxes and humidors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Art Nouveau cigar boxes and humidors for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the Mid-20th Century, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage cigar boxes and humidors created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include decorative objects, more furniture and collectibles and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with metal, silver and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Art Nouveau cigar boxes and humidors made in a specific country, there are Europe, Belgium, and Denmark pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original cigar boxes and humidors, popular names associated with this style include Gorham, Gustave De Bruyn, and Georg Jensen. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for cigar boxes and humidors differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $372 and tops out at $13,500 while the average work can sell for $3,118.

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