The Enchantment of Woven Silk.

Some years ago I managed to aquire premises which at the time belonged to a gentleman who repaired watches, clocks and other mechanical devices. It was a small shop with a nice display window which was great for the business I wanted it for, My little Antique shop.

When I finaly moved in. there was a lot to be done such as, painting the walls inside,putting up shelves.painting outside walls, repairs to the roof,stripping the wooden window frames and repainting them, and of course having to hire someone to make me a sign once I decided on a name. My family and friends all chipped in to help with the renovations.

We discovered that there was a basement to this shop where there were all mannor of, what looked like rubbish at the time until we had cleaned the whole area and taken bits and bobs upstairs, including small pieces of furniture. There were several items of blue and white china cups,plates,bowls, jugs,an old sewing machine,some drinking glasses a glass decanter and a couple of pewter tankards. Most of these items were of the 19th-early 20th century but when cleaned up were suitable to put in my shop window as a start to my enterprise.

Two of the most interesting things we found in this basement was an old cigarette machine and a chocolate machine which still had some packets of Wills cigarette’s and Kensitas cigarettes left in there.Believe it or not, there was also some chocolate in the machine. We managed to get the cigarettes and the chocolate out of the machines because I knew that the packets they were in were collectable items and they were in good condition.Once I placed these in the window it created a lot of interest and discussions amongst many people who rememberd these items. The machine’s themselves were quite large clumbersome things which I told the dustbin men to take away. Never thought at the time to take them to auction as they were most likely collectable to someone

In 1933 and 1934 The Kensitas cigarette’s had a small card inside the packet which opened out to reveal beautiful woven silk flowers. As there were only a few packets left in the machine we found we were only able to retrieve about six of these cards you can see below. However, not in very good condition after being moved around from different places over the years.

 

Kensitas flowers were woven from silk and were given away with Kensitas cigarettes in 1933 and 1934. Since their issue, no silk has been given away contained in an outer protective card. The silks were issued in three different sizes.( Small ) – Given away with 10 cigarettes and made to fit inside the packet,measuring 4cm wide and 6.75cm high. (Medium) – Given away with 20 cigarettes again fitting inside the packet and measuring 5.5cm wide and 7.5cm high 

You could buy Albums in which to put the Kensitas silks inside and were sold for each of the sizes costing l/- (one shilling) each Album.

 Albums to insert Kensitas Silks

Below are a few more Kensitas silks but in prestine condition.

These silks are so beautiful and are now collectors items.