American Eagle Tobacco Works
 

This tin box sold quickly on Ebay last night for about $50. Is anyone familiar with this item? My first impression was a fantasy piece, but the embossed lid may indicate otherwise. Thoughts?

My money's on good box, faux graphics........regardless very nice. There's a trade card for the company that's baseball but I don't think it looks exactly like this. Might be real. If so, that was an amazing bargain.

If that's fake it's a really great job. Paper label over rusted steel with the rust showing through and stains that look "right" I'm not sure if there's any way to do that quickly. I have stuff I've put in my garage which is damp and it hasn't aged like that after maybe ten years.

Someone who could do that sort of aging should sell it for far more as art.

Steve B

I'll tell you what it looks good to me and there are similar American Eagle tobacco tins you can look up. That would be a tough one to fake like that

very interesting
 

I'm going with a real label. I own the trade card (different) which was later offered as a US stamp. I have seen the tin before but never with a label. I have never seen that image before. While it really isn't that difficult to "distress" something (I worked at the Metropolitan Opera next to the scenic shop where my friend distressed things) - and without it in hand - it looks pretty good. One main test would be to loupe it - but lacking that as the chromolithography would be difficult to replicate - when tilting it at an angle there should be what seem to be thin "patches" of raised ink as a result of the transfer........

no guarantees whether written or implied.

Now I'm not so sure the image looks to washed out to be a nineteenth-century lithograph

I saw it as well and assumed it was a fantasy piece.

wouldn't think it's a fantasy item
 

it appears to be more along the lines of what would be an actual caddie label (one that would generally be found on a crate/case) attached to a legitimate tin. Sometime a cheap manufacturer would cross use things to use stock or save money so a too large label might have been used. This label however is the pinnacle of such work - expensive to produce and unsuitable for such a box - an unlikely marriage.

There is no specific crate label guide or site that I know of - so one would have to rely on a paper or tobacco label dealer for their recollections of such a label. Whether the label is real or not (reproduction/copy) is a separate question - it should be examined in person.
Finally not sure the tin and label match up age wise - the container's construction and materials seem more recent than the label.

As I was posting this picture elsewhere thought it might be appropriate here. One of the few BB trade cards I have. One of the US stamp series was based on this image.