Very Rare Antique 1915 Harvard Felt Blanket from Fatima Cigarettes. Displays a football player with a large flag for the University and their seal. Marked on the back. These were made in very small quantities between 1910 and 1915, as the company was trying to appeal to more sophisticated and educated crowds.  

Condition: Great. 

Size: 13 1/4 x 27 in. 

Fatima Cigarettes was an American brand of cigarettes manufactured by the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. Fatima was launched in the 1870s, and was marketed as an exotic blend of Turkish tobaccos. It was one of the first brands to be made on a cigarette machine, and the name Fatima, a common Turkish or Arab woman’s name, helped bolster the Turkish image. The original pack art featured a veiled woman, the Turkish crescent moon with stars, and the Iron Cross, the symbol of the Ottoman empire. It became the best-selling cigarette brand in the United States from 1910 to 1920. Their early advertisement products were also beloved, including flip books, cigarette cards, baseball cards, and a set of flags from various American Universities, all of which are now considered very rare collectors items. From 1917 to 1919 the Frank Seaman Agency created specific Fatima advertising aimed at an educated, prosperous consumer who read publications like Town and Country. However, the Turkish fad fell out of favor as the events and end of World War I made the East seem less mysterious and interesting to Americans. Camel cigarettes soon took their place, and during the Great Depression all advertising for Fatima was discontinued. The cigarette received a modern makeover after World War II, becoming a King Size cigarette to compete with other popular brands of the era. Before 1950, the package design included a stylized image of a veiled Middle Eastern woman, which gradually gave way to more Americanized iconography, and eventually simple text on the pack. Nevertheless, the brand’s old-fashioned image caused it to lose market share from the 60s onward, and L&M eventually phased it out by around 1980.

Great.