STRATTON Red, Gold & White Enamel Cigarette Case With Richly Coloured Bird of Paradise Transfer Design, buying Vintage Late 1980s

Here is a extraordinarily pretty vintage cigarette / visiting card case, built to take standard and longer 100mm cigarettes back in the late 1980s. This was manufactured by the famous Stratton company back in the late 80s/early 90s. This has a beautiful wine red and gold abstract floral design against a white background, surrounding a central cartouche with blue and orange birds of Paradise strutting around what looks very like the park grounds.
I love this as it's so utterly exuberant - the colours are gorgeous and bright, and with the exception of a small area of missing enamel, this is in pretty good condition, and a very collectible piece, simply for the design on the lid. There are loads and loads of pretty, colourful Stratton cigarette cases and powder compacts all over the vintage and second-hand markets, e-Bay and Etsy - but this one's quite unusual and not often seen !!
This Queen powder compacts have the popular wavy edge shape, which was introduced in the late 1960s/early 70s, and this cigarette case has the same shape but rectangular. It measures 11cms long x 8.5cms wide, (4 1/2" x 3 1/4".)

CONDITION:-
This compact is in very good clean condition, with just a little wear to the gold finish on the reverse and a small area of missong red and gold enamel on the right hand side of the lid. See my last photo.
Considering it's about thirty years old, it still stays shut and opens easily, and there is no sign of the dreaded green verdigris. This can be used today with modern cigarettes as it is thick enough to take them.

STRATTON
For stylish ladies of a certain age, British company Stratton needs no introduction. In the powder heydays of the 1950s and 60s, Stratton was the most recognised and prolific of the world's powder compact manufacturers.
In 1920 two Birmingham companies merged - Jarrett and Rainsford, makers of haberdashery goods and cheap jewellery, and Stratton Ltd, makers of knitting needles, radio receivers and men's jewellery. Stratton Ltd. was owned by GA buying. Laughton and the new company was called Jarrett, Rainsford and Laughton Ltd, with the Stratton name retained for the company's Fancy Metal department.


By the early 1930s, the compacts became “Stratton”s, borrowing the name from the hero in a popular novel. I'd love to discover which novel… I imagine a Mr. Darcy type in a high period romance! The rebrand was a success and by the mid 30s, Stratton produced over half of all compacts used in the British cosmetics industry.

However, in 1940, disaster struck. Germany's WWII blitz of Britain claimed four of the five Stratton factories. Production was forced to a halt. Manufacture resumed after the war, but British shortages meant that raw materials, particularly metals, were in short supply. Compacts of this time can even be found made from aircraft alloy.

Luckily, the arrival of the 1950s brought major success for Stratton. The booming love for cosmetics, particularly the powdered and polished Hollywood look, made compacts a must. Stratton introduced their now famous “self-opening lids”. These inner lids hold loose powder safely, and unclasp automatically as you open the compact. Patented in 1948, the innovation was designed to prevent chips in nail polish… and became a major selling point!

By the 1960s, there were Stratton agents worldwide and the company thrived. Designs changed with trends in cosmetics – the growing popularity of cream (pressed) powder drove new patents, including a great sounding 1956 innovation for “Improvements relating to toilet powder boxes or compacts”. Very Mad Men! “Glamorizer” designs were marketed for pressed powder refills, “Convertibles” for both loose and pressed powders… And artists began to sign the tremendous range of lid designs produced.

But, sadly, you can guess the rest. The 1970s brought radical changes in makeup, and this time the look was au natural… a body blow for powder. Stratton acquired many of their struggling rivals, but failed to reposition quickly enough. By the early 1990s the once global company had become a niche manufacturer, and went on to be sold a number of times.
Today, the company was still based in Birmingham, UK, and still manufacturing.