Tobacco and Eros

"As the cigarette’s sweetest charm is the intoxicating, it is almost inseparable from the more excessive delights. It belongs to champagne, to reckless gambling and romance, to flippancy and sin and to the poetry of indulging." ¹

But it wasn’t the cigarette which was to become the first symbol of erotic seduction: Tobacco and its effects were from the beginning under the spell of Eros. In the 18th century the tobacco’s more or less aphrodisiacal or also chastening effects were already talked about but since at the time snuff boxes were used by both sexes their décor only rarely included erotic insinuations.

It is only in the 19th century when women were banned from consuming tobacco and men started to retreat to the smoking room, that a noteworthy increase in erotic smoking accessories can be observed. Snuff boxes with false bottoms were the first items to become widely popular. While the boxes’ covers would show perfectly innocent scenes, their interiors concealed false bottoms underneath which unambiguous pornographic illustrations were hidden. The smokers who in the course of the 19th century eventually replaced snuffers also took pleasure in pornographic gimmicks. Pipes and cigar holders made from meerschaum were decorated with explicitly crafted unambiguous scenes.

With the advent of the cigarette, women were allowed to smoke again. To an extent the cigarette’s external appearance – a slim shape enveloped in delicate white paper – was seen as a symbol of the feminine. The "alluring woman" holding a cigarette became a popular fin de siècle pictogram conveying a clear erotic connotation. In the "Sittengeschichte des Lasters" (The History of Moral and Vices) published in 1927 it can even be read: "... it is beyond doubt that smoking is also capable of exerting a pleasant stimulating charm on the genital sphere … These attributes of tobacco to prompt mental arousal and to stimulate sensuality makes it understandable that indulging in tobacco is also evidently related to prostitution ..." ²

Finally in the 20th century, it was practically inconceivable in both literature and the film industry until the 1970s to leave out the cigarette as an erotic requisite of seduction.

¹ Paul von Schönthan (1835-1909), quoted from: Uwe Hesse, Kleine Zitatesammlung über Tabakgenuss, no year given.
² Leo Schidrowitz (Ed.), Sittengeschichte des Lasters, Wien - Leipzig 1927

This French box is a rare 18th century example of an erotic snuff box. Its cover shows a portrait of Voltaire encircled by a list of his works while inside the box and concealed underneath a false bottom a crude erotic scene is revealed. Starting with the 19th century boxes with false bottoms and mainly made from papier maché are frequently found in German speaking countries.

Around the mid 19th century so-called "Doppeldeckeldosen" (boxes with false bottoms) became widely popular. The cover of these boxes invariably showed a harmless scene such as this one of a rather stuffy looking couple. Only upon opening the false bottom in their interior, detailed erotic depictions of an unambiguous nature would be revealed. It is not difficult to imagine that such boxes apart from serving as tobacco depositories were fit to arouse a certain measure of excitement when being handed around in the smoking room.

Like the snuff boxes with false bottoms this cigar holder with its sculpted pornographic décor of two couples quite clearly at it was obviously also meant for use in the intimacy of the smoking room.

Zeus’ amorous adventures such as this one of Leda’s seduction by the swan were among the popular erotic themes chosen for smoking accessories. This cigar holder which is very finely crafted and particularly full of details shows Leda’s fully devoted surrender to the swan.

The high quality lacquer painting on this cigar case depicts the homoerotic encounter of two young girls on a park bench.

This simply crafted cigar holder bears a fully sculpted naked girl hiding her vulva from a rat.

The frequent use of this cigar holder adorned with a girl sitting with her legs pulled up and reeling wool from her knees is betrayed by its dark discoloration.

A finely crafted girl in lingerie is pierced in a delicate place by the mouthpiece of this cigar holder.

The flowing beard of this cigar holder which is crafted like a man’s head wearing a fez conceals a lasciviously lolling female nude.

The erotic subjects found on porcelain pipe bowls range from the classic nude such as in this example to crude erotic scenes with unambiguously allusive mottos.

This bowl shows a portrait of Napoleon III composed of female nudes.

The porcelain pipe’s decor is made up of two naked girls on a river bank at nightfall.

This naked beauty sensuously lying down and being served a water pipe and coffee expresses the longing for the orient typical for the 19th century and is representative for the secret delights and sensual pleasures associated therewith.

The woman sitting on the edge of a bed in a light negligee and contemplating the smoke of her cigarette incorporates the allegory of sultry seduction as described for instance in Joseph Roth’s Radetzkymarsch between the young Trotta and Frau Slama.

The danseuse sitting casually on a chair and flirtatiously lighting the cigarette of her admirer who faces her in joyous expectation illustrates the cigarette’s meaning as a requisite of seduction.

This portrait of Violetta Sanchez with cigarette is representative of the linkage of smoking and eroticism taken up in both literature and film until the 1970s.