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Left: Mistick Krewe of Comus ball-favor compact box; created for 1940; gilded metal, metal, and enamel; by Volupte USA; 1961.8.1
Right: King’s crown, worn by David DiVincenti in the McDonogh 15 childrens Carnival parade; created for 1938; cloth and leather decorated with
rhinestones, colored-glass inserts, and glass beads; made by Pauline Anderson, DiVincenti’s grandmother; 1992.6
of Mardi Gras, but it was the Mistick Krewe of Comus that, starting in 1856, defined the structure and traditions of Carnival balls still in practice today. Krewes started providing favors to ball guests. These favors range from elaborately gilded jewelry boxes to drinking glasses and were hampered by only the imagination and budget of each krewe. Favors tend to fall into three general categories: personal and grooming items, jewelry, and household objects and tableware.
Some of the most beautiful and elaborate favors date to before World War II. Rex’s sumptuous gilded hatpin holder from 1909 features a woman in a flowing skirt, resting each hand on a cornucopia. Comus offered an ornate woman’s compact as a favor in 1940. It features a cigarette holder with rolled tubes of paper, representing cigarettes, a gold tube of lipstick, a reservoir for makeup, and a mock-tortoiseshell comb. Decorative boxes, perfume bottles, cigarette lighters, mirrors, pillboxes, scarves, bookmarks, and fans were all given as favors over the years.
Jewelry, especially pins, is another common favor among krewes. One enameled pin given by the Twelfth Night Revelers in 1923 depicts Ayesha—heroine of the Gothic novel She, who was the theme of that year’s ball—bathing in a pillar of fire while her black hair swirls around her. In 1941 the Krewe of Eros gave out bracelets composed of eight small, connected life preservers, each inscribed with “H.M.S. Pinafore,” in reference to the popular Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera.
Household objects and tableware given as favors range from the practical—a 1967 Krewe of Iris decorative light switch, which is touch-activated by a metal horse head—to the lavish, such as the sterling silver dish given by the Atlanteans in 1959,
Krewe of Rex ducal decoration; created for 1889; gilded metal, enamel, grosgrain silk, rhinestones, colored glass; 1994.142.11
The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 5