There was little to be cheerful about in England in August 1942, but the recipient of this elegant and amusing cigarette case must have derived no small amount of pleasure in receiving it. Finnigans was an old established business selling luxury goods to a wealthy clientele. Founded in the early nineteenth century and at first specialising in luggage, the firm opened a shop in New Bond Street London in 1879 where its range expanded to clocks, watches, and silverware. This shop closed in 1968, but the business continued at other premises operated by the family for another twenty years.

Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) was a Peruvian artist who specialised in paintings of ‘pin up’ girls which still enjoy great popularity today (see image13). In the 1940s he produced a series of pictures of young ladies, usually scantily dressed, for the American Men’s magazine Esquire, which became known as the ‘Vargas Girls’. One of them was chosen to decorate the front of this case and is known by the title ‘Seams Perfect’ which aptly explains the pose where the young lady looks over her shoulder to check the fit of her stockings. The four character mark (and it is indicative of the quality of this piece that all its separate elements are marked) reveals the maker, the London based silversmiths Cohen and Charles (‘C&C’), the assay office, London, and the date (from the code mark ‘F’) 1941.

Complete with its doubtless original box, this cigarette case is an elegant souvenir of the luxury items to be found in London’s Bond Street even at a time when many were occupied with rather more serious concerns.