Photo Credit: nyjewel
Vintage 14 Karat Gold Cartier Cigarette Holder
Buy It Now Price: $649.99 (price as of 2016; item no longer available)
Pros:
-This vintage, 14 karat yellow gold Cartier cigarette holder absolutely exudes high class Art Deco style. It is marked with its fineness, “14KT.”, maker, “Cartier”, and a control number, “1429”.
-Cigarette holders were a smoking accessory that was popular from about 1900 to the 1970s. They served two main purposes – keeping smoke out of the user’s face and preventing nicotine staining of the fingers.
-The piece weighs 6.1 grams (0.1961 troy ounces) and has a butterscotch colored mouthpiece made from either amber or celluloid. My guess would be amber, given the Cartier attribution, but this is impossible to determine without personally inspecting the item.
-The seller does not disclose the length of this specimen, but we can guess that it is probably a “dinner length” cigarette holder – about 4 inches (10 cm) long.
-This vintage Cartier cigarette holder was most likely produced by the famous French luxury house in the 1920s, although there is the possibility it is from the 1930s or even 1940s.
-The flared trumpet shape of the cigarette holder, combined with a mouthpiece of a different material, is typical of Cartier construction during this period.
-Tobacciana is largely overlooked in the world of investment grade antiques today. This is probably because smoking has declined in popularity in the West over the last few decades – especially in the U.S. However, this just increases the investment potential of these wonderful objets d’art, as few people are currently interested in them.
-Given its high quality construction, famous maker and fabulous zeitgeist, this gold Cartier cigarette holder is fairly valued at $650.
Cons:
-If you don’t smoke, this cigarette holder is purely an objet d’art with no practical application.
-The auction house Christie’s sold a similar example in 2013 for $375. However, this figure was substantially below the pre-sale estimate of $800 to $1,200.
-This Cartier cigarette holder would be more desirable and valuable if it had a more elaborate design or decoration. The fact that the piece is so simple, while stylistically accurate, does restrain its potential value a bit.
-This piece has a relatively low intrinsic value. If we assume that gold constitutes about 5 grams of the item’s weight, this cigarette holder has a bullion value of about $191 with spot gold currently trading at $1,190. That means you are paying a fairly hefty 240% premium over melt value. However, you don’t buy Cartier antiques based on their melt value, but instead on their value as investment grade art.
