You are purchasing a 3/4″ Pinback Celluloid button depicting the Flag of New South Wales manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag Company, Newark, NJ copyright 1896 which was distributed in Sweet Caporal Cigarette packs as a premium.
This button is one of the “Flags of the World” series given away in these cigarette packets.
This button is in Very Fine condition with no cracks to the surface. It is guaranteed to be original and over 110 years old.
Please see the pictures.
3/4″ Pinback Celluloid button depicting the Flag of New South Wales
Manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag Company, Newark, New Jersey
Sweet Caporal is one of the oldest names in cigarette brands, one which survives in Canada to this very day. The brand was originally produced in the United States by the Kinney Bros. Tobacco Company, New York, beginning in 1878, and became very popular. Kinney Bros., which was merged into the pre-1911 giant American Tobacco Company, expanded into Montréal; the Sweet Caporal trade mark was registered in Canada in 1887. American Tobacco expanded into Canada in 1895 by buying The American Cigarette Company and D. Ritchie and Compnany, both of Montréal, and becoming the American Tobacco Company of Canada, Ltd.; they in turn were bought out in 1908 by the newly-formed Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada. At the time of Imperial Tobacco’s creation, Sweet Caporals commanded 50 per cent of the Canadian cigarette market.
(All history taken from Wikipedia for educational purposes only.)
