Type Fashion accessory | ||
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Material Silver, jade, or plastic | ||
A cigarette holder is a fashion accessory, a slender tube in which a cigarette is held for smoking. Most frequently made of silver, jade or bakelite (popular in the past but now wholly replaced by modern plastics), cigarette holders were considered an essential part of ladies' fashion from the early 1910s through the early 1970s.
Contents
Purpose
The holder was also used as a practical accessory, as before the advent of filtered cigarettes in the 1960s, the holder served several purposes. A holder kept tobacco flakes out of the smoker's mouth, kept the thin cigarette paper from sticking and tearing on the smoker's lips, prevented nicotine stains on fingers, cooled and mellowed the smoke and kept side-stream smoke from stinging the smoker's eyes. Occasionally the holder would be built to encase a filter for taste and, later, for health reasons. Though modern cigarettes are generally manufactured with an existing filter, filtered cigarette holders are occasionally used as a secondary filtration system, and to prevent nicotine staining of the fingers.
Materials
Cigarette holders range from the simplest single material constructs to incredibly ornate styles with complex inlays of metal and gemstones. Rarer examples of these can be found in enamel, horn, tortoiseshell, or more precious materials such as amber and ivory.
A similar holder made of wood, meerschaum or bakelite and with an amber mouthpiece was used for cigars and was a popular accessory for men from the Edwardian period until the 1920s.
Size
As with evening gloves, ladies' cigarette holders are measured by four traditional formal standard lengths:
Traditionally, men's cigarette holders were no more than 4 inches long.
Notable users
Well-known women who used cigarette holders include Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Jayne Mansfield, Jacqueline Kennedy, Rita Hayworth, Princess Margaret, Wendy Richard, Madalena Barbosa, Louise Brooks, Cleo Trumbo and Ayn Rand. Scarlett Johansson is a contemporary example.
Among the best-known men who used cigarette holders were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Terry-Thomas, Enrico Caruso, Vladimir Horowitz, Ian Fleming, Noël Coward, Hunter S. Thompson (though he regarded his as only a filter), Tennessee Williams, Fulgencio Batista, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Josip Broz Tito, and Hans von Bülow.