A JEWELLED 18 CT GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, CARTIER, PARIS, CIRCA 1950

H.R.H. The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

Christie's London, Silver, Furniture and Works of Art from the Collection of H.R.H. The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, 14 June 2006, lot 341

H.R.H. Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (1930 – 2002) was without doubt one of the most glamourous members of the royal family. According to a contemporary, ‘she usually carried no money [but] her handbag was full with her lighter, cigarette case [and] make-up.’ It comes as no surprise that Her Royal Highness should have owned such a fine, ruby-set gold cigarette case. At the time it was made, such boxes by Cartier, the French luxury jewellery firm founded by Louis-François Cartier in Paris in 1847, were considered ‘the ultimate touches of elegance.’ (The Tatler, London, Wednesday, 16 July 1958, p. 122)

Cartier, which opened branches in London in 1904 and in New York in 1912, quickly gained an international reputation for the quality and chic of its extraordinary jewels and objets d’art. Vanity cases, minaudières and cigarette cases joined the group of most desirable objects with the rise of smoking in the early 20^th century: ‘We do declare that when tempted to do yourself too well, if you will ‘‘Reach for a Lucky’’ instead, you will thus avoid over-indulgence in things that cause excess weight and, by avoiding over-indulgence, maintain a modern, graceful form,’ stated the American cigarette company Lucky Strike in a marketing campaign in the 1920s. Although this optimistic attitude has been proven wrong, it epitomises sophisticated living in the 20th century, when smoking became the essence of cool elegance (see fig. 1, where Princess Margaret was photographed at charity ball at the Savoy Hotel on 27 May 1953).