Posted 7 years ago
vintagelamp
(1101 items)
"Glamour is finished. I don't want my picture in the papers next to a girl with jeans on." ~~ Hope Hampton
Antique Egyptian Cigarette Tin with original custom cigarettes for 1920s film star Hope Hampton
An antique tin cigarette box from the 1920s. The outside has a blue and pink label of an Egyptian sheik with a background of palms, pyramids and camels. Inside are 18 of the original gold-leaf tipped (to prevent one's lips from sticking) cigarettes. Each cigarette is stamped “Specially Made for Hope Hampton by M.S. & Said Abdoulatif Elgabri, Cairo”
Hope Hampton (Mae Elizabeth Hampton) (February 19, 1897 - January 23, 1982) was an American silent motion picture actress and producer, who was noted for her seemingly effortless incarnation of siren and flapper types in silent-picture roles during the 1920s. She also at one time was an aspiring opera singer.
On her honeymoon trip to Egypt, a Sheikh offered her husband £10,000 British pounds to buy his wife. The husband smiled at the Sheikh and told him that Hope's jewels were worth more than that. Her honeymoon was in 1923, so one can assume she got these cigarettes at that time.
There is the smell of perfume to the cigarettes and I understand that some cigarettes of that time period were actually scented.
That has to be one of the most incredibly interesting items I've seen in my years on CW. This is truly fantastic. The cigarettes and tin are in amazing condition. And I must say, she was quite a beauty!!
jscott, Thank you so much! I am a 1920s fanatic so I was thrilled to find this! I had already known the story about the sheik, so when I saw the Egyptian connection I was so happy. This woman had long blond hair and was doing the twist in NYC in the 1960s! One of her husband's previous wives survived the Titanic. Another was killed by a car after visiting the pyramids! The story is fantastic!
I'm with Scott; this really is an awesome and unusual collectible.
That girl looks so gorgeous and just a bit naughty!
racer, Thank you...and I think more than a "bit" naughty.