Cigarette Cards

1913 Fable Series--51 to 100. A.T.C. Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. I have 49 of the 50 cards in the set. Most cards marked by the factory from which they were distributed, e.g. Factory No 7, 3rd Dist., State N.Y. 44 of the cards for £64.90 from Murray Cards International, Cecil Court, London, August, '97. Other cards through Ebay from Don Anthony, Phoenix, OR; Mary Brush, Colby, KS; Darrell Dirr, Middletown, NY; Ron and Kathleen Hamill, Wakefield, RI; Josh Harris, Novato, CA; Andrea Howell, Bangor, PA; Glenn W. Kennedy, Flagler Beach, FL; Bill Miller, Fort Collins, CO; Teresa Poole, Springfield, MO; and Chris Stetzer, Red Lion, PA. Delightful colored pictures and simple, straightforward tellings. Like Murray, I arrange them alphabetically. I find no way to identify a number on the cards themselves. About 2¾" x 3 1/8". Though it may be disguised here through clever cropping, most of these cards have bumped corners. In this set, there are several cards in fair and even poor condition. For this set, I have had to work hard on Ebay to find cards not available from Murray and to improve on some in the Murray set that were of lesser quality. For a long time, I have been missing one card: "The Lark and Her Young." I finally found it on eBay for $20 in Oct., '02. Among some pleasing art, my prizes for visual effect here go to "The Eagle and the Jackdaw," "The Goatherd and the Goat," "The Monkey and the Camel," "The Quack Frog," and "The Wolf and the Shepherds."

1922 "Thin Numerals." The number in the series here appears in large, thin print within the banner at the upper right. The crosslike form in the upper left corner touches the outer line of the frame. The typesetting of the fable text in this series is that of the 1912 series, except for the change in placement of the card number. #43 verso here has "The Field of Threasure." Complete set for £70 from Murray Cards International, Cecil Court, London, July, '99. Extra copies of #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #13, #15, #28, #30, #32, #36, #40, #45, #52, #54, #70, #85, #96, and #99. Extra set of 100 for £12 from an unknown source. Partial set of 49 extras for $15 from John Cole, Kent, UK, through eBay, August, '10.

1912 "Number by Caption." The number in the series here appears in the upper left below the banner at the top of the verso. There are larger and more elaborate floral patterns in both upper corners. Within the banner we read not only "100 Designs in Set" but also "Series I." Complete set for £140 by mail from Murray Cards International, Cecil Court, London, Oct., '06. Complete set of 100 missing only card #36 for £32.10 from John Whitehurst, Staffordshire, England, through eBay, August, '03. Card #36 from Murray Cards International, London, for £3, August, '03. Extra copies of #20, #33, #41, #45, #46, and #77.

1920? Cloth card quoting La Fontaine and advertising Zira cigarettes. "Help thyself and God will help thee." 2½" x 3". Factory No. 7, 5th Dist., NJ. $5 from Hide and Seek Antiques, Wells, ME, through Ebay, Jan., '02. Here is a first for me! I did not know that there were cloth tobacco cards! The quotation appears to be drawn from 6.18, "Hercules and the Carter" or, to be more true to La Fontaine, "The Carter in a Rut." La Fontaine's French there is "Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera." For once, the card is quite accurate! Besides that, it is quite pretty.

1932 Aesop's Fables. W.H. & J. Woods Ltd., Cigarette Manufacturers. Preston. Series of 25. $20 at Noah's Ark, Milwaukee, June, '87. Second set for $13.50 from Colin Fawcett, Wisbech, England, through Ebay, Sept., '01. This was my first set of cigarette cards. I went on to find a great deal more, including two different renditions of this same set in color, done by Gallaher in 1931 and Anstie in 1934. These cards are in very good condition. The copies here of the earlier colored work are unspectacular. The texts repeat those of the Gallaher original.

1913 A.T.C. Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. About 80 of the Turkish Trophies cards arranged in an album after both picture and text were pasted onto a new card and the former's gold frame extended around the latter. $17.50 from Doris Larson, Little Falls, MN, April, '00. There have been other collectors as crazy as I am. This collector took a lot of time. First, the collector found two of every card. Secondly, she or he cut the text portion (title, fable, and moral) from the back of one of each pair and, thirdly, pasted both picture and text onto a new and slightly larger card. Finally the collector used a brush or pen to extend the golden stripe around the now lower text portion. Doris offered six loose cards on Ebay, and our contact led to my purchasing the whole album. We collectors can be a strange lot!

1913 Fable Series--1 to 50. A.T.C. Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. Most cards marked by the factory from which they were distributed, e.g. Factory No 7, 3rd Dist., State N.Y. £82.50 for a full set from Murray Cards International, Cecil Court, London, August, '97. Other cards through Ebay from Don Anthony, Phoenix, OR; Ron and Kathleen Hamill, Wakefield, RI; Josh Harris, Novato, CA; Andrea Howell, Bangor, PA; Glenn W. Kennedy, Flagler Beach, FL; Bill Miller, Fort Collins, CO; Teresa Poole, Springfield, MO; and Chris Stetzer, Red Lion, PA. Delightful colored pictures and simple, straightforward tellings. With Murray, I arrange them alphabetically. I find no way to identify a number on the cards themselves. About 2¾" x 3 1/8". Though it may be disguised here through clever cropping, most of these cards have bumped corners. Among some pleasing art, my prizes for visual effect go to "The Blind Man and the Whelp," "The Fox and the Woodman," "The Mice in Council," and "The Peacock and the Crane."

1927 Fables of Aesop. From engravings by W. Hollar, etc., MDCLXV. Series of XXV. About 3" x 2½". Player's Cigarettes. Issued by John Player & Sons, Branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland), Limited. $76 at Murray Cards International, Cecil Court, London, July, '92. Excellent reproductions in good condition. All but two ("The Covetous Man and the Goose" [#6] and DM [#23]) match my reprint of the 1668 Ogilby The Fables of Aesop Paraphras'd in Verse. Unusually squat size for cigarette cards. My favorites in this group include "The Dog and the Thief" (X), "The Husbandman and the Serpent" (XVII), and the classic LM (XX).

1931 Aesop's Fables. Gallaher Ltd. So called "Series of 50." $9.95 from "Warlock" through Ebay, Nov., '01. Having heard that there was a so-called "Series of 50" that had only 25 cards in it, I was on the alert for it and at last found it. The design is exactly the same as in the series of 25 done by Gallaher, apparently in the same year. Had they planned to go further but never perhaps got around to it? A number of cards in this particular set are misprinted on the verso, so that they show a part of a column from a different card and miss part of this card's column. Might these be contemporary reproductions?

1931 Aesop's Fables. Gallaher Ltd. Series of 25. $40 from John Wyatt, Wynn Vale, South Australia, through Ebay, March, '99. This set is exactly identical with the later Anstie set of 25, except that the back here is printed with brown ink rather than black and has "Issued by Gallaher Ltd." underneath an individual card number at the bottom of each back. John did some investigation to learn that Gallaher later in 1931 issued the same cards with "Series of 50" on the backs, but the series included only these original 25! After a good deal of time spent scanning these cards, I can say that they are unusually well cut and aligned.