What-is-it question XLIII.

[2209patrick]

This piece is a carousel. It's 15 inches (38.1 cm) high and 8 inches (20.32 cm) wide.
The compartments and base are silverplated. Probably made in the mid 20th century.

The question is, what was kept in the holders inside each door?



Pat.
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[byron mac donald]

Hi PAT-

Is it a egg holder for soft boiled eggs?

Byron
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[2209patrick]

Hello Byran.

It does not hold eggs. In the what-is-it question XXVI we discussed that item.
The holder inside these doors is smaller.
http://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7007" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Pat.
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[wev]

Roswell Gleason; bottom of the page.
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[2209patrick]

This piece did not hold anything related to food.

Pat.
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[wev]

Edward and Roswell Gleason both held patents for the basic form of the frame, which was put to a variety of uses -- egg cups, cruet bottles, cigars, etc. Your photo is none too clear, but the center bit shown looks like a lyre. A harmonica holder for those long Victorian evenings around the family hearth?
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[2209patrick]

The pockets on the inside of each door held cigarettes.

Pat.
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[wev]

evidenced by?
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[dognose]

Hi Pat,
Interesting item, What is the part in the middle, does that hold more cigarettes or is it the spring device that opens the doors?
Regards Trev.
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[2209patrick]

Don't know what the part in the middle is for.

You more often see these in porcelain and plastic. Not many around that were silverplated.

Pat.
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[wev]

I would be interested to see some actual documentation that these were actually sold as cigarette holders originally. I can certainly see an enterprising antiques dealer calling them such, but only to make a more current (in the old days) use for them. Machine rolled cirgarettes did not appear until after 1881 and it remained a man's diversion for another decade (and who could honestly picture this goopy thing sitting at a man's elbow in the day?). By the time women began taking it up in large numbers, this stand would have been very far past its stylistic time -- it was already three decades old in the 1880s. On a practical point, the door compartments are a very poor design, unless they are a make do, as I said. You would need some dexterity to slip one out, to say nothing of the fact that the doors open in the wrong direction for the vast majority of right handed people.

Perhaps these were indeed marketed as you describe, but I have serious doubts they originally designed as such.
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[admin]

I have never seen a nineteenth century example, but have come across a couple of mid-20th century made in Austria versions that were music boxes (cheesy, plastic panels & gilt stamped brass frames). It seemed obvious they were manufactured to dispense cigarettes. Don't recall if they had door pockets, but the centerpieces were pyramids of tubes that when filled made a sort of cigarette christmas tree.

Regards, Tom
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[2209patrick]

Years ago I worked in a tobacco and pipe smokeshop. At Christmas we sold a slightly different version of this cigarette dispenser.
The ones we sold were either ceramic or wood with a lighter on top.
Been racking my brain to remember what we called them. We refered to them as pagodas.

The following scan is from one of my lighter books. "The Evans Book" by Larry Clayton (published by Schiffer, ISBN 0-7643-0641-3).


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[wev]

Well, beg your pardon -- it seems I missed the "made in the mid 20th century" in your initial post and assumed we were talking about something nearer in time to the Gleason's original creation.
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[dmay]

I am thinking the middle piece held matchbooks.
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[dognose]

Or cigars maybe?
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