Check out this phenomenal c. 1920s cigarette case with an enamel plaque featuring the “New Woman” playing tennis. She’s wearing a short skirt (short meaning her calves were exposed, albeit with stockings), her forearms are bare, and she sports a jaunty headband in her short bob—but perhaps most fabulously, she has a gold bangle on her upper arm!!! She looks to me like the famous French tennis player of this era, and one of the first professional female players, Suzanne Lenglen, although the resemblance could be generic. Lenglen scandalized people by wearing a more “revealing”—and practical—outfit like this one on the courts, and was a fashion icon off the courts, too, for her fur coats, silk clothes, red lipstick, and diamond-accented headscarves. It's an amazing portrayal, very well-articulated painting, and full of action and joie de vivre, celebrating the relative freedoms of the Roaring ‘20s. It is a very unusual piece—I have been unable to find anything quite like it, although it relates to Edwardian and Art Deco cigarette cases and snuff boxes with enamel plaques representing other hunting, sports, and rakish past-times of the bon vivant gentlemen. But I have yet to come across another such piece featuring a woman. Or, I should say, featuring a woman in such a way that it wasn’t intended to titillate a man—I believe this could have been a cigarette case that a woman might have carried. How spectacular! Particularly for a serious collector with a passion for tennis and women’s history. Made of 900 silver, the cigarette case is in very good condition, though it lacks its original interior bands. The case has no notable dents or dings, and closes securely. I have left the slight tarnish to the case, although a new owner could choose to clean it. The enamel is in pristine condition. Not many of us carry cigarette cases anymore, but the case also serves for a wallet or card case. Or it makes a wonderful collectable, of course.