Antique Gold and Sterling Silver Cigarette Fraternity Box, Watrous C.1920 SOLD

American Gold and Sterling Silver Cigarette Fraternity Box, Watrous C.1920. This very unusual box of rectangular concave shape, the front with gold inlaid rosette foliage decoration and vacant gold cartouche against sterling stippled background. The reverse engraved with crest of The Loyal Order of Moose depicting a Moose with motto PAP (Purity, Aid, & Progress) Loyal Order of Moose. The gilded interior opening to reveal an automatic spring up cigarette sectional divider for a total of ten cigarettes. Stamped with maker’s mark for Watrous Sterling 14K Gold inlaid and number 661. Measures: 8.00 x 7.00 x 1.50 cm. Item Weight: 115 grams.
The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. It was founded in a doctor’s living room in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1888. Dr. John Henry Wilson organized the order as a place for men to get together to socialize. By the early 1890s several lodges had been formed in cities close to Louisville, such as, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and small towns in Kentucky and Indiana. In 1906 the Order had only the two Indiana lodges remaining. On October 27 of that year James J. Davis became the 247th member of the Order. Davis was a Welsh immigrant who had come to the US as a youth and worked as an iron puddler in the steel mills of Pennsylvania and an active labor organizer (he later became Secretary of Labor in the Harding administration). With his membership drive, the organization had grown to nearly a half a million members in over a thousand lodges. In 1913, The Women of the Moose organized and formed an auxiliary group. Today it has 1,600 Lodges in 49 states, four Canadian provinces, and the United Kingdom. Reflections from photography only.