Height: 8.5cm (3.25)
Provenance: Cosmo Edwards, Indian Political Service (1877-1956)
Silver. Cigarette case of plain convex form, the upper left corner of the sprung hinged lid engraved with the badge the ‘E’ cypher of Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII (reigned 1936); the gilt interior inscribed ‘C.G.N.E. / 1922’. Maker’s mark of ‘AC’ for Royal Warrant holder Alfred Clark of 33 New Bond Street, London. Hallmarked London 1919. Contained in its original pouch embossed with the Prince of Wales’s feathers..
The present cigarette case was given during the 1922 Royal Tour of India by the Prince of Wales to Cosmo Edwards, a young officer in the Indian Political Service at Peshawar. Cosmo Grant Niven Edwards (1896-1964) was educated at Fettes and Edinburgh University. He was commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry in 1915. He served on the Western Front from May of that year until wounded in France in 1917. He later transferred to the Indian Army and was attached to the Corps of Guides during the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919). He entered the IPS in 1921 and was assigned to the North-West Frontier Province. From 1930 to 1932, he served as under-secretary to the Government of India and from 1934 to 1937, as deputy secretary, Foreign and Political Department, Government of India. He was resident for Kalat State from 1938 to 1940, Bhopal from 1940 to 1942, Kolhapur from 1942 to 1944 and the Madras States from 1944 to 1947.