1092 - Three cigarette holders, 835 silver, rocaille and scroll relief, Bakelite mouthpieces, Art Deco

Three cigarette holders, 835 silver, rocaille and scroll relief, Bakelite mouthpieces, Art Deco 835 silver and Bakelite, three cigarette holders, each hallmarked "835". 1) Conical, angular sleeve with hammered decoration, maker's mark probably "ESt" at the lower edge, black mouthpiece slightly curved and flattened at the end, Spring for ejecting the cigarettes. 2) Club-shaped sleeve with rocaille relief, below it a plain ring with hallmark, black square mouthpiece. 3) Square sleeve with leaf scroll relief on a punched ground, hallmark at the lower edge, long faceted honey-yellow mouthpiece, Spring for ejecting the cigarettes. Good condition commensurate with age, L. 10 cm (longest piece). As a sleeve between cigarette and mouth, a cigarette holder protects clothing from ash and fingers from nicotine and keeps tobacco crumbs away from the mouth; ladies' holders were traditionally made longer than men's. Rocailles, shellwork of C-shaped curved motifs ending in volutes, were the leitmotif of the Rococo and returned to favour in the applied arts of Historicism with the Neo-Rococo from about 1840. The plastic of the mouthpieces, a phenolic resin made by the process of Leo Hendrik Baekeland, was also used under the name Bakelite as a substitute for amber and ivory. The hallmark 835 identifies the sleeves as silver of 835 parts per thousand.