Just to add to the confusion, let me know that I have handled thousands
of "cobs" over the years.  I have found them three ways: naked, with
a very heavy plain brown type wrap, and with "premium" paper wraps that
were used by marketers (for instance, currently we have some with "The
Larkin Soap Manufacturing Company").

We have also occasionally gotten them in wooden boxes designed to hold
a number of cobs, but I have never been convinced that these were made
for the cobs, as opposed to being a box that worked nicely for them.

Marty Roenigk
http://www.mechantiques.com/