Trace evidence of cigar box instruments exists from 1840 to the 1860s. The earliest known illustration of a cigar box instrument is an etching copyrighted in 1876 of two American Civil War soldiers at a campsite, one of whom is playing a cigar box fiddle. The etching was created by illustrator and artist Edwin Forbes, who, under the banner of "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper", worked for the Union Army. The etching was included in Forbes's work "Life Stories of the Great Army". In the etching, the fiddle clearly shows the brand "Figaro" on the cigar box.