Ever since I stumbled across this curious object it has been baffling me. Standing at no more than six inches or so high it shows a little coloured boy smoking a cigar and wearing a slotted cap. It looked to be Victorian or Edwardian in origin and although a friend suggested it could be used to hold fruit knives I'm not at all convinced! The fact that he's smoking suggests to me that it must have had a smoking related purpose or at least a use confined to gentlemenly gatherings. Any ideas? Many thanks!

 

 

Hi there,

Maybe an incense burner or humidor?

Al.

Great idea Al. Sadly the item was bought by someone else before I had a chance to go back and explore further. I hadn't noticed it at the time but if you look closely there appears to be a tiny button just above the figure's belly-button. I wonder whether it's possible that this was some sort of early electric lighter? The base seemed solid but the log he's sitting on was hollow. Could a cable have gone through there? But then, why the slots? Nothing could have been lit through there. An electric incense burner?

Just an idea? - I had something similar to this. On mine, Underneath there were gas fittiings, the flame would come out of the end of the cigar. The slots at the top were to hold wooden spills to light cigars with. Mine came from a tobacconist in London, where it sat fastened to the counter. fortunately the chap I purchased from was very knowledgeable about it. I have seen others for sale at shows, where the base has been covered over to hide the fittings, cheers

Could be a tobacconist counter bell ? Hat looks like its got a mechanism in it and I've seen one similar

Thanks for all the suggestions. It's hardly going to help much but here's a close up of the cap's contents. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have let this slip away without having had a closer look at it!

I had one with a bell on it. It also had a cigar cutter.

Got good money for it in the end.

Al.