Richard Carleton Hacker > Quotes

“Although cigar smoking was immensely popular during Victorian times, it was publicly kept in the shadows, largely due to Queen Victoria’s adamant disapproval with anything even remotely connected with tobacco. Thus, it was literally an enlightened world when her son, King Edward VII, uttered these now famous words in 1901, after his coronation: “Gentlemen, you may smoke.”
― Richard Carleton Hacker, The Ultimate Cigar Book

“With the help of Dutch traders, by 1750 the cigar eventually made its way to Holland and then to Russia. There, Empress Catherine II had her cigars decorated with delicate silk bands so that her royal fingers would not become stained while she smoked. This simple yet ingenious device would subsequently inspire the cigar bands that we know today.”
― Richard Carleton Hacker, The Ultimate Cigar Book