Midas Touch

To be filed under “the past is a foreign country”, here we have some cigarette-themed writing paper. A promotional item, perhaps? Something one might obtain in exchange for the coupons one had been saving up? A gift for the discerning nicotine enthusiast in one’s life? Who knows, but here it is - obtained a couple of years ago from an ebay seller, each sheet decorated with brown and red diagonal stripes. I can’t be sure it dates from the ’70s, but it certainly looks the part.

The paper is good-quality stuff in 6"x8" (‘Albert Quarto’) sheets bearing John Dickinson & Co’s Three Candlesticks 1649 watermark. The box has some ballpen scribbles courtesy of a previous owner: possibly done with a pen like this…