Description
CIGARETTE TIN – CONSTANTIN BRAND – KONSTANTIN KAISERPREIS – FIFTY CIGARETTES
I am not sure if Imperial-Era Germans bought cigarettes in paper packets as people do in the present. My educated guess, however, is that tin cigarette containers were upscale, premium purchases. Such cigarette tins varied in size. The container we are offering today was produced by Constantin, a well-known cigarette firm from Hannover. It would have held fifty cigarettes. [I have seen a one-hundred cigarette tin elsewhere, although I cannot say with certainty if a larger size was available].
This Constantin cigarette tin’s lid is designed to look like a Kriegsflagge with an Iron Cross in its upper left corner. It measures 1” x 3.25” x 5.25.” A naval officer with a warship behind him appears in the tin’s center. The officer is in full uniform, with a cigarette in his hand. The caption “Constantin Kaiserpreis” (Kaiser Prize) appears at the bottom, rendered in traditional German Fraktur printing. Additional information about the firm is available inside the tin.
The Constantin cigarette tin is in very fine condition, overall. It is relatively scarce.
