Unusual Artifacts: An Engraved Silver Cigarette Case, 1903

Cigarette Case
Silver, 1903
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Though in the early Nineteenth Century, cigar and pipe-smoking rose in popularity, by the end of the century, cigarette smoking was all the rage. Always eager—then as they are now—to capture an emerging market, manufacturers and jewelers quickly created a range of accessories tailored especially for cigarette smokers. Cigarette cases were especially luxurious. Here’s an unusual example.


Designed in 1903 for Léon Rueff--the head of the Swiss Bank in London during and after the First World War (1914-18)—this silver cigarette case has been created to resemble a stamped, addressed envelope. At one point a matching match safe was part of this suite. The match safe resembled a calling card. A gilded button on the side can be pressed to release the catch that opens the case. Inside, a strip of elastic has been stretched across the case (to hold in cigarettes).

The engraved, as if handwritten, address on the case perhaps refers to Rueff's office or London club. The stamp is enamel and made to resemble the penny stamp with the head of King Edward VII.

Mrs Herbert Seligmann (Lise Rueff) gave the cigarette case to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1997 “in remembrance of my aunt and uncle, Suze and Léon Rueff, whose only son died an Officer of the Hamlet Rifles in Libya in 1941.”