Cigar box juggling has its origins in Japan, where wooden blocks were used to do various complex balancing tricks as well as tricks we now more closely associate with cigar boxes.
Toorukitchie – 1860s
Eventually, jugglers such as Boum-Boum, Jim Harrigan, and W.C. Field popularized using cigar boxes, or at least props decorated as cigar boxes, in their acts. However, there have been a number of jugglers who have used cylinders or spools to do similar tricks rather than box or brick-shaped props. This is in addition to those performers who used the traditional Japanese ball and two sticks and their modern counterparts, which you can learn about by clicking here.
Cylinders
Félicien Trewey (1848 – 1920) was a French juggler and variety artist who performed many cigar box tricks using wooden blocks. Trewey also apparently used three “round blocks,” as the oldest known juggling catalog, the Catalogue Of Fine Juggler Goods Manufactured By Prof. Otto Maurer, which was published in New York City, NY (USA) in the late 1880s or early 1890s, contains an advertisement for Trewey’s Round Blocks, which you can see below. This was the first known example of cigar box-type props for sale.
Los Rados was a juggling trio who included a cigar box-style routine by one of its members using three cylinders made to look like a cigarette. You can click here to see video of this routine.
Los Rados member
Los Rados member
Los Rados member
Los Rados member
Miz Tilly (Laura Green) used coffee cans with felt on the ends in place of cigar boxes. You can see them below.
Laura Green’s coffee cans
I made a set of juggling cylinders to do this style act in my Juggling History Show, discussing Trewey.
David Cain
Spools
Other jugglers have used spools or other similar props to do standard box moves.
The oldest known use of these was by the clown Griff. You can see a photo of Griff with these below, courtesy of Erik Åberg.
Griff, from the Erik Åberg Collection
You can see a routine using these at the beginning of the following film of Mayes and Roth from 1920.
You can see old school juggler Martino doing three spools in the illustration below.
Martino 1915
The following photo of an unknown juggler features spools in action.
You can briefly see spools being used in the following video of the 1950 IJA Convention, from 6 seconds to 9 seconds from the start of the film.
Nick Gatto worked with three spools in his juggling act.
Nick Gatto – 1957 IJA Convention
The Juggling Jacksons used spools as well, which you can see below.
Two spools used by the Juggling Jacksons from the Museum of Juggling History
David Lucas also used juggling spools to do cigar box moves in his act. You can see the spools in the foreground of the following photos.
David Lucas
Close up of David Lucas’ spools
Russian performer Alexander Maiorenko uses three diabolos to do cigar box tricks before then using them as diabolos. You can click here to see video of this.
Alexander Maiorenko
Francoise Rochais performed with spools in her act for one summer in 2001. She was introduced to the idea by Nick Gatto. You can watch her using the spools at the 1:02:13 point in the documentary Trailblazers, which can be viewed here.
Francoise Rochais 2001
Francoise Rochais 2001
David Cain
David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).