The Cigarette Case in Popular Culture

James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine in 1881 and it was at this time that cigarette smoking became widespread. Cigarettes and smoking were popular with soldiers during the First World War. Cigarettes and tobacco became a comfort for soldiers in the trenches and they were even given out free to the soldiers.  Smoking became popular culture and cigarettes fashionable accessories. Cigarette production increased and they were even marketed to women which made the popularity of cigarette smoking and indeed the production of cigarette cases even more widespread. This is where the cigarette case came into play and they became a more indulgent fashion accessory.

The cigarette case can be made from a number of different materials which include sterling silver, gold, chrome, tortoise shell, guilloche, enamel, shell, ivory, jade, silver-plate, Bakelite and celluloid to name but a few.

If we take a look at the iconic images of cigarette smoking within Hollywood, who can forget the famous image of Audrey Hepburn smoking a cigarette with her elegantly gloved hand. Cigarette smoking became the epitome of cool and glamour, there was James Dean and Humphrey Bogart all making cigarette case even more appealing. Cigarette smoking was deeply ingrained in American popular culture. The Hollywood starlets made what is now viewed as a bad habit as something attractive and seductive.

Cigarette holders became a fashion essential from the mid-1910s through the early-1970s. Famous silversmiths in England who produced the most fine cigarette cases in the world today includes Mappin & Webb, James Deakin, J. Gloster, A J Zimmerman and The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co Ltd. All of these silversmiths we have had in our lovely range of cigarette cases at Milly's Marvels.

Today cigarette cases make fabulous collector's time pieces and the more expensive fine cases an investment for the future. Today they can make great business card holders. Please take a browse through our cigarette case and vesta case collection....