Art Deco Sterling Silver Cigarette Cases

These days in most places you're treated like an escapee from a leper colony if you admit that you smoke. If you pull a pouch of Bugler out of your pocket and start rolling a cigarette people range from rapt fascination to wondering when you fell off the turnip truck. Light up an Indian bidi and you'll engender some mystery and intrigue into your nicotine habit. Casually slide a sterling silver cigarette case out of your pocket and suddenly you become a dashingly handsome character out of a 1930's movie in some exotic locale. The ladies don't chastize you for smoking. They want to hold it, to feel it, and they'll often say something along the lines of "Ooh, I haven't smoked in years, but may I please try one?" followed by "Where did you ever find it? It's just so beautiful!"

My good friend, the late Mary Poh, had an antique shop for years right across from city hall on 125th St. and often I'd drop by just to say hello and see what interesting new things she had in the shop. The one with the gold bands and fancy engraving has no makers mark. The engraved initials are actually an AH but it looks close enough to an AK to pass. The other one is marked Sterling and it's also marked Tiffany. A jeweler friend put the little plate with my initials over the place where sombody else's initials were once engraved. Smoking is respectable again. Sort of...