What wood are most antique humidors made from?

Oak is the single most common wood, at a third of all titles, followed by walnut at just under a fifth. Cedar turns up as the lining rather than the carcase. Beyond those, titles name burr walnut, rosewood, amboyna, satinwood, coromandel and linden wood. A handful of pieces are metal-mounted, copper, or leather-covered instead.

How old are the humidors listed on Sellingantiques?

Dated fields cluster in the second half of the 19th century and the Edwardian years. Thirty of the listings carry a clean year, running from 1850 to 1930. The rest use era labels: 19th Century, Victorian, Edwardian. Those are periods, not dates, and a few titles carry no date at all. Two Regency-labelled pieces bracket the early end, and a couple of Art Deco boxes of around 1930 the late end.

Why are railway wagon humidors so often mentioned?

They are the archive's signature oddity. Several separate railway coal wagon humidors have turned up, including one modelled as a GWR wagon. They sit well up the range, alongside the other novelty forms: dog kennels in rosewood and in oak Black Forest, carriages, a musical cigar box and an automated one.

Is a smoker's cabinet the same as a humidor?

Not quite. A smoker's cabinet is a fitted case or small cabinet holding cigars, pipes and accessories together, rather than cigars alone. Cabinets account for about one in seven titles, among them pipe smokers' cabinets, a doctor's smoking cabinet, a locking gentleman's cigar and tobacco cabinet and a tambour-fronted cigar cabinet.

Does Black Forest carving appear in this category?

Yes. Six titles use the term, covering carved bears, dogs and linden wood work in the naturalistic animal manner associated with that region. Carved dogs, bears and a poodle appear as tobacco jars, and the larger carved pieces sit in the upper part of the range.

Are humidors a specialist dealer's category?

No. Only around seven humidors are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, yet 39 different dealers have handled them. That is close to one dealer per listing, so no single specialist owns the heading and no maker's name defines it.

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Antique Humidors

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A humidor is a lidded wooden box, casket or small cabinet made to hold cigars or tobacco at a steady moisture level, commonly cedar-lined and, on this site, most often Victorian or Edwardian oak or walnut.