Assouline is taking another dip into the world of cigars.
The New York-based publisher will release a new coffee table book dedicated to Arturo Fuente next month. Entitled Arturo Fuente: Since 1912, the massive tome charts the history of the revered brand and attempts to illustrate why it’s still going strong over a century after its founding.
Those with only a passing knowledge of cigars have probably heard that the finest hail from Cuba, but true aficionados know they can be found elsewhere. For proof of this, all you need to do is look at (and smell) the top-notch, hand-rolled smokes Arturo Fuente has produced since it was founded in West Tampa, Fla., in 1912. A lot has happened since that humble beginning, though. The brand relocated to the Dominican Republic, a country it has become synonymous with, and has become one of the largest family-owned cigar companies in the world, rolling some 30 million stogies per year. It’s little wonder there was enough material for a whole book.
Helping tell the story of how Arturo Fuente helped shape the modern-day luxury cigar is expert Aaron Sigmond, who provides the words, and photographer Ian Spanier, whose gorgeous full-color snaps fill out the book’s 240 pages. There’s also a foreword by actor Andy Garcia, who teamed up with Arturo Fuente for the limited run of Opus X Lost City Edition cigar last decade, as well as an afterword by Ciro Cascella, the brand’s current executive president.
Available through the Assouline website next month, Arturo Fuente: Since 1912 is a true coffee table book, measuring 14 by 17 inches. Each hardcover, priced at $1,200, is hand-bound in Italy, finished with authentic cigar bands and comes presented in a special clamshell box. If you’re looking for another book to pair it with, one of the publisher’s current best-sellers is The Impossible Collection of Cigars, which was also penned by Sigmund. You can also snatch this tome up through the Assouline website for the same price.
