TEA POT DOME CROOKS

Wooden cigar box disparaging the Harding & Coolidge administration, circa 1924. Standard size. The lid has become severed and re-attached with paper tape. The outside lid is dark and hard to read, and there are several wood chips along the bottom, but this displays well when opened up. The graphics on the outer lid are repeated on the inside lid and feature a teapot superimposed on the Capitol Building which is surrounded by oil derricks. Note the double-meaning of "CROOKS". The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery incident that took place from 1920-1923 during the Harding administration. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming (and two other location in California) to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases became the subject of a sensational investigation by Senator Thomas Walsh, and used to discredit Coolidge and the Republican Party by the pro-John W. Davis forces in the 1924 campaign. Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies and became the first Cabinet member to go to prison. One of the most interesting 3D poplitical items of the 20th century.