The Amster Quality Cigarette was the creation of Max Amster, a New York City wholesale jobber of tobacco and candy. During the Second World War, Mr. Amster (1893--1963) decided not to join fellow NYC jobbers who had banded together to manufacturer Lady Hamilton Cigarettes, but to form his own company. There was a wartime shortage of cigarettes, and these businessmen knew that a lot of money could be made if they could find tobacco good enough to make cigarettes. In 1945, the Clover Tobacco Company began production in the Trent Building, Irvington, NY. Clover Tobacco consisted of ten cigarette making machines that Max Amster had bought from the P. Lorillard Company's Jersey City, NJ factory, one packaging machine, and a full time in-house mechanic to keep the old equipment running. There were delays in filling orders, though. The antiquated machinery kept breaking down, and inferior tobacco with too many leaf stems caused problems. The end of the war meant the end of the cigarette shortage. Clover had most domestic orders cancelled. For several years after the war, Max Amster continued to make his Amster Cigarettes, but most of his production was exported to the Philippines and Europe. Eventually, the cigarette machines were sold and shipped to the Philippines. Max Amster lost money on this wartime venture, but most of the makers of the little known war shortage cigarettes didn't. The Clover Tobacco Company, Inc. was designated Factory 185, 14th District of NY.