Fabulous Solid Silver & Enamel, Cigarette Case of Rudyard Kipling’s, Richard Caton Woodville’s and Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Boer War Soldier’s Relief Fund. ‘The Absent Minded Beggar, A Gentleman in Kharki. By Victorian Silversmiths Saunders & Shepherd

This is a unique, stunning and exceptional antique Victorian sterling silver and enamel cigarette case. Made for one of the principles, possibly one of the main instigators of the Boer War Relief Fund Charity, Kipling, Woodville or Sullivan, or Lord Northcliffe or his brother Lord Rothermere, the publishers of the Daily Mail, a fund raised by an appeal started by The Daily Mail.
It has a rectangular form with rounded corners. Just regular Victorian solid silver and fine enamel cigarette cases are very highly prized, and have been incredibly collectable over the past hundred years, and can achieve incredible prices, but this is one of the rarest and most historical examples, made for one of the most successful charitable causes of the Victorian age, that one can find. This fabulous Victorian case has a subtly curved form proffering a comfortable fit in the majority of pockets. The anterior cover of this Victorian case is embellished with an impressive painted enamel panel depicting a British soldier holding a rifle and standing on a rocky hillside, with a blooded bandage around his head and a helmet to his feet.
The enamel decoration is accented with the quote
A Gentleman in Kharki
Importantly, with the engraved word ‘copyright’ to the lower edge. This was a stipulation that only items made specifically for the relief fund could display, to ensure all receive monies went to the fund.
The posterior surface and rounded sides of this cigarette case are plain.
This silver Victorian cigarette case is fitted with a push fit catch, which when released reveals two hinged compartments.This impressive case retains the original gilded interior and two retaining straps.
It was crafted by the Birmingham silversmiths Cornelius Desormeaux Saunders & James Francis Hollings (Frank) Shepherd.
This notable illustration in enamel on the case front, is a representation of Richard Caton Woodville's ‘A Gentleman in Kharki’. This design accompanied the song/poem The Absent-Minded Beggar by Rudyard Kipling, with music composed by Gilbert & Sullivan’s, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and was used in a press release to raise funds for the British soldier in the Boer

"The Absent-Minded Beggar" is an 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling, set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and often accompanied by an illustration of a wounded but defiant British soldier, "A Gentleman in Kharki", by Richard Caton Woodville. The song was written as part of an appeal by the Daily Mail to raise money for soldiers fighting in the Second Boer War and their families. The fund was the first ever such charitable effort for a war.

The chorus of the song exhorted its audience to "pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay– pay– pay!" The patriotic poem and song caused a sensation and were constantly performed throughout the war and beyond. Kipling was offered a knighthood shortly after publication of the poem but declined the honour. Vast numbers of copies of the poem and sheet music were published, and large quantities of related merchandise were sold to aid the charity. The "Absent-Minded Beggar Fund" was an unprecedented success and raised a total of more than £250,000.

The Daily Chronicle wrote that "It has not been often that the greatest of English writers and the greatest of English musicians have joined inspiring words and stirring melody in a song which expresses the heart feelings of the entire nation". Sullivan's manuscript was later auctioned for £500 towards the fund.

The popularity of the poem was such that allusions to it were common. Mark Twain wrote that "The clarion-peal of its lines thrilled the world". By 18 November, less than a month after publication of the poem, "a new patriotic play" was advertised to open the next week, titled The Absent Minded Beggar, or, For Queen and Country. The same month, the Charity Organisation Society called "The Absent-Minded Beggar" the "most prominent figure on the charitable horizon at present." Even a critical book on the conduct of the war, published in 1900, was titled An Absent-Minded War. Kipling was offered a knighthood within a few weeks of publication of the song but declined, as he declined all offers of State honours. Historian Stephen M. Miller wrote in 2007, "Kipling almost single-handedly restored the strong ties between civilians and soldiers and put Britain and its army back together again."

A performance of "The Absent-Minded Beggar March" on 21 July 1900 at The Crystal Palace was Sullivan's last public appearance, and the composer died four months later. "The Absent-Minded Beggar" remained popular throughout the three-year war and for years after the war ended. It became a part of popular culture of the time, with its title becoming a popular phrase and cartoons, postcards and other humorous representations of the character of the absent-minded beggar becoming popular. The song is performed in John Osborne's 1957 play The Entertainer. T. S. Eliot included the poem in his 1941 collection A Choice of Kipling's Verse.

The picture in the gallery is of Rudyard Kipling in his study. Recognised my millions of people around the world as the English composer of the greatest poem ever written, certainly one of the most popular of all poems. ‘If’

Copy and paste below Sir Micheal Caine reading his favourite poem. ‘If’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqOgyNfHl1U

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
⁠And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
⁠Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
⁠And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Made by Cornelius Saunders & Francis Shepherd
Hallmarked 1899 made in Birmingham, England. 83mm long, 99.5 grams

Code: 21734