SMALL vintage tobacco premium flag silk - the brightly colored national flag of Holland - now The Netherlands - a small country located on the northwestern coast of Western Europe. This flag silk was distributed between 1911 and 1916 with Sovereign Cigarettes, as part of its popular Flags of the World Series. Sovereign Cigarettes, made in New York, was one of several brands sold by the American Tobacco Company. "Holland" is printed next to the image. "Sovereign Cigarettes" and the factory number and location are printed along the borders. Small flag measures 3" x 1".

Holland - officially known as The Kingdom of the Netherlands - is the home of windmills, dikes and the the Dutch people. Much of the country is below sea-level and has been reclaimed from the North Sea over the years, through the dike-building engineering skills of the Dutch people. This flag - a tricolor with alternating red, white and blue stripes - has remained substantially the same since the late 16th Century when the Dutch provinces, led by William of Orange revolted against Spain. At first the flag was orange-white-blue, but later the orange stripe became red.

During the early 20th Century, American Tobacco Company was one of a number of cigarette companies that gave free silks, flannels or leather to customers who purchased their tobacco products. These textile items were distributed either as an insert (sometimes in an envelope, into the tobacco packaging, and sometimes attached to the outside) or as a "premium" (given away in exchange for coupons inserted in the packaging). The small 3" x 1" silks were usually inserts in the product. The larger silks were usually premiums given in exchange for coupons.

The cigarette "silk"was one of the most popular of the textile tobacco inserts or premiums. They were often beautifully polychrome printed, with a number of different themes. And although called "silks" they were actually made from a variety of fabrics such as silk or silk satin, a cloth combination of silk and cotton, a cotton sateen or even a plain woven cotton. Tobacco silks and flannels were often used by women to make quilts and other textile objects. (It is thought that distributing these textiles with tobacco products may have been a marketing strategy to entice women into smoking cigarettes.)

CONDITION NOTE: Tobacco silks often show their age. Since the borders of tobacco silks are almost never finished, they are usually frayed, and on some silks the name "Sovereign Cigarettes" and the factory information are partially, and sometimes completely, obliterated by fraying along the borders. This one is no exception. Sovereign Cigarettes is partially obscured by fraying along the bottom border. All of the other lettering is completely intact. There are also few slight wrinkles, which may disappear with a careful pressing on delicate setting. Areas of minor age fabric discoloration are much less noticeable in person than in this scanned image.