Vintage stuff from Vintage Gent

VG graciously let me intrude on his thread with a few examples of stuff I've handled through work in the last few years (all sold, I'm not trying to shill them, heh). They're all silver, and all Norwegian, except for a Russian cigar case, the case with the Leda motif and the rather odd, heavy English case with crowned monograms. Shakers: Some cocktail/savouries stuff: Sixties/seventies cocktail pins in plique-a-jour enamel: Russian cigar case, St. Petersburg, around 1900: Initialled sterling Zippo: Cigarette cases; here's Leda and the swan in an early stage in the relationship (this one's probably German): An oddity from WWII, with a very patriotic thank-you inscription, would love to know the story: A lovely art nouveau cigarette case in silver and rose gold, one cabochon sapphire and 23 small rose-cut diamonds, made by the goldsmith/designer for himself (I almost bought this myself) : And a sterling table cigarette box:

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

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VG graciously let me intrude on his thread...

No intrusion at all. It's great to see someone classing up the joint.

I love the russian cigar case!

Originally Posted by darkoak

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I love the russian cigar case!
Yes, that was a beauty - and the fact that the only hallmark that could be made out was the St. Petersburg one will haunt me - that sort of quality isn't made by just anyone, particularly with the nice cabochon amethysts at the ends. It was also quite big, something like 20 centimetres. It went for something like $1500.

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

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here's Leda and the swan in an early stage in the relationship (this one's probably German)
Here you find them in a somewhat more advanced stage (German as well);
Paul Mathias Padua "Leda und der Schwan", one of Hitler's favourite paintings.

I love the Teutonic obsession with these sentimental deviancies. The shaker is reminiscent of those Deco cigarette cases where people's signatures would be engraved on them or those precious metal card cases where an "handwritten" address would also be engraved.

I love cigarette case and some of the shakers are stunning.
Russian peace however is pretty kitchy like most Russian decorative art.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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The shaker is reminiscent of those Deco cigarette cases where people's signatures would be engraved on them or those precious metal card cases where an "handwritten" address would also be engraved.
Yes - I've seen a few ones where the whole case is engraved as a trompe-l'oeil addressed envelope, sometimes with an enamel postage stamp. I'd love to have one of those made. The trouble is you need a very permanent address, of course. These "signature" engravings had a vogue in the thirties, - my brother-in-law has a shaker like this one, except for the enamel on the top, with the signatures of his grandfather's fellow students. I think it was a wedding present. Silver cocktail shakers are quite undervalued - I managed to get hold of one to give to my nephew as a christening present just last year - it cost me something like $250. Very cool for him to have when he gets older, at least when I've had it engraved with something like "From your wayward uncle".

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

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Yes - I've seen a few ones where the whole case is engraved as a trompe-l'oeil addressed envelope, sometimes with an enamel postage stamp. I'd love to have one of those made. The trouble is you need a very permanent address, of course.

These "signature" engravings had a vogue in the thirties, - my brother-in-law has a shaker like this one, except for the enamel on the top, with the signatures of his grandfather's fellow students. I think it was a wedding present.

Silver cocktail shakers are quite undervalued - I managed to get hold of one to give to my nephew as a christening present just last year - it cost me something like $250. Very cool for him to have when he gets older, at least when I've had it engraved with something like "From your wayward uncle".
I also love those somewhat gaudy Russian "souvenir" cigarette cases where precious metal or gem-studded appliques were attached to the cases in a very random fashion.

Do those envelope cases show up often for sale? I would love to get one since they're scarce here. I've seen one by Paul Flato but it was wildly overpriced.

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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Do those envelope cases show up often for sale? I would love to get one since they're scarce here. I've seen one by Paul Flato but it was wildly overpriced.
I haven't seen one in at least five years - I think they were most popular in the UK, though, so that should probably be your hunting-ground. The genuine Russian "souvenir" cases can be prohibitively expensive, funny to think that before the fall of the USSR, they were quite cheap. There are some beautiful ones in this catalogue, I think: http://www.uppsalaauktion.se/web_kat...61B1YnP398286A Another thing: Why don't more people use old cigarette cases as wallets, card-cases etc? A good silver vintage cigarette case can often be had for far less than $100.

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

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Another thing: Why don't more people use old cigarette cases as wallets, card-cases etc? A good silver vintage cigarette case can often be had for far less than $100.

Because the size is wrong.

Originally Posted by chorse123

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Because the size is wrong.

Well - they can be had in all manner of sizes?

Originally Posted by LabelKing

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Do those envelope cases show up often for sale? I would love to get one since they're scarce here. I've seen one by Paul Flato but it was wildly overpriced.
Here's another example from the catalogue I linked to above, in this case, it's engraved to resemble a regular cedarwood cigar-box: This one is sitting on my desk as I write. It's a lid for a bowl, made to resemble a typical Russian peasant's embroidered cloth:

That's remarkably beautiful; the mesh and enamel work seem perfect.

I've also seen some mesh gold cocktail belts made to that standard.

Lucky Strike,

the bowl lid is mind blowing!
It appears to be a masterwork.
This object is sitting on your desk?
Is it a chalice cover?

Thanks for sharing.