Live Auction 7470Exploration and Travel
British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909
Lot 345 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909

Shackleton's cigarette ration case (empty), originally containing twenty-four Turkish cigarettes

Closed27 September 2007

Price Realised

GBP 6,250

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British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909
Shackleton's cigarette ration case (empty), originally containing twenty-four Turkish cigarettes
Japanned iron case with Emily Shackleton's ration instructions on the lid ('One to be smoked on 1st of each month!')
5 x 3 x 1in. (12.7 x 7.6 x 2.5cm.)

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922), and thence by descent; sale, Christie's, 25 Sept. 2001 ('The Shackleton Collection'), lot 61.

Specialist note

Shackleton was apparently a heavy smoker and smoking was widely acknowledged as one of the few pleasures to be had after a hard day's sledging. The southern party's supplies of cigarettes ran out on the return from their Farthest South and a smoke was a rare treat: '15 [February] My birthday. hard pull bad head again cig for present ... made out of pipe tobacco and some coarse paper we had with us. It was delicious.' (E.H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic, London, 1909, II, p.360).