Back in 2014 the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University held an exhibition called Selling Smoke (which you can still explore online) about the shift of advertising over the 20th century. The authors don’t get into much of the social history that caused the Art Deco lighter to be such a popular accessory, but the sharp images in the book show the allure of these objects. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 put a damper on some of the more lavish goods, yet through the new austerity emerged streamlining, which industrial designers like Raymond Loewy experimented with in middle class-aimed mass production, whether a sewing machine or a barbecue grill. They add that before the 1920s and ’30s, “men’s jewelry had previously been limited to watches, cufflinks, and tie pins, and there was soon a great demand for the newly essential smoking accoutrements.”Īrt Deco Collectibles has over 350 illustrations, demonstrating the breadth of the functional art being made in Europe and the United States.
“As the demand for smoking accessories grew, the manufacturers, many of whom had previously produced a variety of ‘fancy goods,’ began making cigarette cases and lighters, as well as ladies’ compacts and other cosmetics accessories,” the Capstick-Dales write.
Original sheet of instructions from the Magic Case cigarette case with lighter (courtesy Thames & Hudson)
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