Covered Cigarette Boxes…
Remnants of a More ‘Innocent’ Time
by Tom Jiamachello

   Pall Mall, Viceroy, Fatima, Old Gold, Parliment, Chesterfield, Lucky Strike, Raleigh, are names that will ring a bell with Americans 40 years and older. These distant echoes come from a past time when cigarette smoking and cigarette advertising dominated American life and print.
   How is it that cigarettes gained such a stronghold in American lives and homes? Uncle Sam and GI Joe played a huge part. My 83 year old Dad, who served in WWII for 4 years tells me that when a GI opened up his K rations, he could count on finding a pack of American cigarette among the "essential survival items". Never at a loss to take advantage of an opportunity, cigarette companies made sure to get their product in soldiers’ hands, no matter how far they were from home.
   When the war was over, the GI Bill, the Baby Boom and the creation of Suburbia all combined to create a working class with more money, more leisure time to entertain family and friends and a smoking habit which would be incorporated seamlessly into their new daily environments. Instead of the K ration holding fresh cigarettes for their consumption, now it was the young GI and his wife who made sure that a cigarette to smoke and a place to put those cigarette ashes were never far from hand. Covered cigarette boxes, match holders, and ashtrays were produced singly and in co-ordinated matched sets by the hundreds of thousands.
   When one looks at the decorating magazines from 1946-1960, one will almost always notice that if a living room is shown, you can bet there will be somewhere a container for cigarettes and ashtrays. I have talked to women who entertained in that time period. They tell me that the perfect hostess was expected to have an ashtray in every room of the house, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom....anywhere a guest might choose to relax. From individual ashtrays with just enough room for one cigarette to "party size" ashtrays with 20 rests. They even came in graduated sizes in sets, just like the Pyrex mixing bowls found in the kitchens of those homes. Glass, metal, ceramic, wood were used for both covered cigarette boxes and ashtrays.
   I want to concentrate this article on covered cigarette boxes. One of the first things I noticed as I began to build my covered cigarette box collection was that the boxes were noticeably not as wide as I thought they would be. My Dad pointed out that in the 30s-60s, cigarettes did not have filters, so the extra length the filter adds was not necessary to store them in a container. In the 1930s, many companies produced covered containers where the cigarette stood vertically. In the postwar era, the great majority of the containers held the cigarettes horizontally, stacked one upon the other. The standard inside space in a container was 3-4" wide.
   The surface of the box was an easel for designers and decorators. There was enough space to create a scene that would appeal to a prospective buyer. Traditional scenes appeared geared toward men or women, from a flying flock of geese over a marshland to a frilly lace inspired look with figural roses on the cover. The pottery industry was never at a loss for inspiration. Any article, which went into the American home, was fair game. From cheap Japanese china to Tiffany silver, the price range was as wide as the decorating styles.
   Two categories of current interest are the boxes created by various California studio potters and designers. Sascha Brastoff, Georges Briard, Max Weil, Mark Bellaire, all created many distinctive shapes of covered cigarette boxes as well as decorating styles. The second category which fascinates me are those boxes created in Italy to be exported to the United States, particularly those made as part of the Raymor line. The styles of the Italian boxes are much more closely attuned to what was going on in the decorative and visual arts in Europe at the time period. The boxes range from extremely simple glazes to surface treatments which required immense amounts of hand work. One can see how the studios producing these pieces loved the canvas that each part of the covered cigarette box offered their inspiration.

The first covered cigarette holder shown here, the #7541 Hexagon Cigarette Box, was made by the Kensington Aluminum Company of New Kensignton, PA. This line was produced by the Alcoa Company and was designed by Lurelle Guild for them. Like the Chase Company, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, a complete line of decorative accessories was offered to the buying public by these companies. This box stands 4 3/4" high and holds thirty cigarettes. The patent for this design was issued in Jan. 1935.

The Chase Company produced the second covered cigarette box pictured. It is their # 841 model and called the ‘Rollaround’. This has a very interesting feature. The bottom of the box is set onto four ball bearing feet so this box can be rolled across the table conveniently. Described in this manner in the Chase catalogue: A neat modern cigarette box, finished in satin nickel and mounted on four large ball bearings. It can easily be rolled across the table without marring the surface. The box is lined throughout with a wood veneer, divided into three compartments, and will hold sixty cigarettes. A great Art Deco box!

The third covered cigarette box was produced by the Wendell August Forge Co, of Grove City, PA. This company specialized in hand hammered aluminum and made many cigarette boxes starting in the late 1930s and continuing in the 1960s. The highly detailed and naturalistic Pine Cone design covers all surfaces of the box. The hand crimping along the sides was an early technique as was the strap hinges to hold the piece together. This box carries the 1950s Grove City mark.

The fourth covered cigarette box was made by Max Weil, a California potter. He worked in the 1950s. He was one of the only potters in California to work with "coralene", a technique in which small bits of colored glass are fused to the body of the piece. His pastel palette and Oriental scenes produced a very characteristic body of work. His trademark burro is found on the under glaze brown ink mark on the bottom of the piece.

The fifth covered cigarette box was made by the husband and wife studio glass artist team of Michael and Frances Higgins in their Dearborn, MI studio in the early 1960s. It is done in one of their most popular patterns, the Siamese Purple design. The wooden bottom of this box makes it one of their earlier boxes. Though Michael has recently died, Mary still produces glass with the help of an assistant.

The sixth covered cigarette box is Italian and from the Raymor line. It has wild squares of brown on a white background. Black lines are strizzled throughout the brown squares creating a very abstract effect, a la Jackson Pollock. It is signed ‘Made in Italy'’ Ram/34 and Raymor on the bottom.

The seventh covered cigarette box is also an Italian one, most probably for the Raymor line as well. Its simple black matte glaze is in high contrast to the horizontal deep yellow and black lines traced on the light tan cover. It is signed B56 Italy on the bottom.

The eighth covered cigarette box is very typical of the highly worked surfaces of many Italian boxes of the period. It is done in tones of deep blue and deep green stripes. The volcanic glaze on the cover gives it a rustic, primitive, hand thrown look. The sides have a band of geometric squares carved into them. This look was popularized also by the Rosenthal-Netter Company of Germany. This box carried the full Raymor paper label. It has the number 2695 and the initials BIT on it as well as the slogan of the Raymor line: ‘Modern in the Tradition of Good Taste’.

The ninth covered cigarette box is amazing in its hand tooled look. The cover is a series of indentations in relief. The geometric arrangement of the marks produces a raindrop like effect. The sides are done in a volcanic glaze using the same deep blues as Box #8. It is signed with a round ‘Made in Italy’ paper label and the black numbers 955 Italy.

The tenth covered cigarette box is very interesting. The cover contains fused glass as its primary decoration. Bits of colored glass were fired, melted and fused with the ceramic body to give a crystalline glaze effect. The pink body is covered with a clear glaze on the rest of the piece, producing an amazing contrast. It carries the complete Raymor paper label, which has the numbers 2417 and the initials BIT, and is signed in black ‘1022 Italy’.

     As is the general rule of thumb in most collecting areas, rarity and condition are primordial criteria. The boxes with intact labels or designer signatures or with elaborate decorating techniques will always increase at a higher rate than the more common boxes. There is no doubt that items which today are difficult to locate in excellent condition will become all the more valuable as we travel down the 21st century. As smoking continues its decline and we distance ourselves from the Mid Century period, the hand made treasures once made to contain cigarettes offer myriad possibilities for new contents. Boxes fascinate people and these covered cigarette boxes will continue to remind us of a different, perhaps more innocent, time period when smoking equaled elegance and sophistication.

About the author: Thomas A. Jiamachello is the co-founder of Collector Online, www.collectoronline.com