Beginning in 1875, cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs, and boxers were issued by the U.S.-based Allen and Ginter tobacco company. These are considered to be some of the first cigarette cards. Other tobacco companies such as Goodwin & Co. soon followed suit. They first emerged in the U.S., then the UK, then, eventually, in many other countries.
In the UK, W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1887 were one of the first companies to include advertising cards with their cigarettes, but it was John Player & Sons in 1893 that produced one of the first general interest sets ‘Castles and Abbeys’. Thomas Ogden soon followed in 1894 and in 1895, Wills produced their first set ‘Ships and Sailors’, followed by ‘Cricketers' in 1896. In 1906, Ogden’s produced a set of football cards depicting footballers in their club colours, in one of the first full-colour sets.
Each set of cards typically consisted of 25 or 50 related subjects, but series of over 100 cards per issue are known. Popular themes were 'beauties' (famous actresses, film stars and models), sporters (in the U.S. mainly baseball, in the rest of the world mainly football and cricket), nature, military heroes and uniforms, heraldry and city views.
Today, for example, sports and military historians study these cards for details on uniform design.
Some very early cigarette cards were printed on silk which was then attached to a paper backing. They were discontinued in order to save paper during World War II, and never fully reintroduced thereafter.
The system devised to codify 19th Century American tobacco issues has its origin in the ‘American Card Catalog’ (ACC), written by Jefferson Burdick. Burdick listed the American Tobacco Cards in one section, broken down by companies that issued the card series and by the types of cards. The 19th Century issues were prefixed with ‘N’ (N1-N694) and the 20th with ‘T’. (T1-T235).
This 1939 set is your standard 1930s UK tobacco release. Like many others, it includes a total of 50 cards and has white borders with biographies on the back. The set was issued by Senior Service, which was a cigarette brand under the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland. Senior Service was one of the more popular brands that distributed cards and you’ll see a gaggle of sets that bear their name.
This set celebrates dogs in all their different shapes and sizes and was originally issued with 'Senior Service' cigarettes. The black and white pictures are first class and there is a brief description of each breed on the back, but there is more as the write-ups also include general hints on handling, raising and feeding puppies), registering dogs, disease control. Training hints include "never throw a dog into the water to teach him to swim", "if he tries to go off the pavement jerk him back sharply and scold him" or "if your pup starts yapping say 'quiet' and cuff him". You'd have to be a real dog-hater not to find the puppy pictures adorable and the adult dogs aren't bad either! Breeds include the Irish Setter, Bull Terrier, Welsh Springer, Cocker & Clumber Spaniels, a Great Dane, Pugs, Pekingese, Saluki, Corgis, Poodles, Westies, Dachshunds, an Alsatian, French Bulldog, Dalmatians, Golden Retrievers and Labradors.
Excellent (EX): (5.0-5.5) Corners are still fairly sharp with only moderate wear. Card borders may be off center as much as 85/15. No creases. May have very minor gum, wax or product stains, front or back. Surfaces may show slight loss of luster from rubbing across other cards. Dark bordered cards may have one or two small nicks. All cards are kept in a smoke free environment & will ship in penny sleeves, top loaders, team bag & bubble wrap envelopes. Thank you for looking, please see all of our other ads for some great deals on both New & Vintage Cards, Comics and more.
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