Packet of 20 Capstan Navy Cut

Packet of 20 Capstan Navy Cut full strength cigarettes, unfiltered and in a branded orange packet, 'made of fine Virginia tobacco' and carrying the warning message 'Tobacco seriously damages health'. They were made by Imperial Tobacco under the name of the brand's original manufacturer W.D. & H.O. Wills, UK, c.1999.

Capstan was a brand originally launched by the W.D. & H.O. Wills company in 1894 and was produced at their Bristol factory. They quickly became extremely popular and were one of the best-selling brands of the early 20th century. Capstan was heavily promoted via street and newspaper advertising and this continued after W.D. & H.O. Wills amalgamated with several other manufacturers to form The Imperial Tobacco Company in 1901.

The cigarettes were unfiltered and when in 1973 the UK government published figures for the contents of cigarettes then available to the public, Capstan full strength emerged with the highest nicotine content and the second highest levels for tar. As more restrictive public health legislation was brought in after the definitive link between smoking and cancer was revealed, these levels were reduced but the cigarettes remained unfiltered. Smoking levels have decreased dramatically across much of the world since Capstan’s heyday, but while the design of the packets they’re sold may have lost their distinctive naval references, tobacco under the Capstan brand remains on the market.