My great-grandfather had a cigar in his mouth from when he was a young man in his twenties until his death at the age of eighty. Something tells me he would’ve liked this next museum in the Netherlands, where you can find a house made entirely of cigar bands. Sixty-five years ago, a local artist in Volendams started collecting the paper foils fitted around cigars and used them to decorate the rooms (and furniture) of his house with interesting and colourful mosaics.
It just so happened that the town was world famous for designing and manufacturing cigar labels. So win-win for the artist. When all was said and done, he had a collection of over 11 million cigar bands. Some of the assemblages show people in traditional Dutch costumes, world famous buildings, sailors and fish at the harbour, windmills and other Dutch symbols. Since 1995, his house has been open to the public and is located next to the local history museum, which has rotating exhibits on the town’s fishing industry and home crafts.
