Daniel Marshall Sterling Silver Humidor
"Everyone has seen a wooden humidor,” says Daniel Marshall. “No one has seen a silver humidor.” He’s sitting in front of a desk in New York City, an espresso and lit cigar by his side, his new Daniel Marshall Sterling Silver Humidor in front of him, a marvel of handmade craftsmanship and a search that bordered on obsession.
Marshall has been making humidors for 28 years. In 1995, he worked with a silversmith to ensconce one of his pieces in sterling silver as a thank you gift to Arnold Schwarzenegger. “I said I’ve got to come up with the most ballsy, most manly, most special humidor that I can.” He did, but he couldn’t duplicate it. “That master silversmith went out of business,” says Marshall. “For 10 years I looked.”
One silversmith couldn’t do the detail that Marshall wanted, another wanted far too much for his services, another still wanted to skimp on the precious silver. “I was neurotic,” admits Marshall, a California craftsman who has made some of the best-reviewed humidors (as well as most reasonably priced) in the pages of Cigar Aficionado. Finally, he found his company, a third-generation family of silversmiths in Florence who could deliver the look he was seeking. “As if molten metal had been poured over the box,” says Marshall.
The result is striking, a regal silver humidor with heft and style, its lid done in a pattern of elegant lines, with no visible seams anywhere but the lid, and soft, beveled edges rather than hard lines. There’s no hint of the many hammer strikes that were needed to coax the silver into place around the wooden humidor that rests inside, while making sure the traditional Daniel Marshall excellence of Spanish cedar interior with its perfectly matched edges remains intact.
“I spared no expense,” says Marshall, lifting the 20-pound masterpiece and showing off the bottom, which is also silver lined.
Each piece (retail price $15,000) is made with 100 ounces of silver ($2,200 worth at current prices) and can hold 100 cigars (80 Daniel Marshall cigars are included). The humidors can also be customized to the buyer’s liking.
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