Cartophilic Picture Gallery

Capture of Gibraltar
Historic Events no. 36
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1912

Historical events and military imagery became increasingly popular and important in cigarette card content in both Britain and Germany prior to the First World War.  The front of this card bears an artist's impression of the capture of Gibraltar.

Alpine Toadflax
Alpine Flowers no. 20
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1913

Flowers are traditional subject matter for cigarette cards and appear in a number of pre-war sets by a number of different manufacturers.  An example is this set by W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd.

There are relatively few cards surviving from the period 1914-1918.

King Charles Spaniels
Dogs (Scenic Background) no. 37
John Player & Sons, 1925

Players produced several sets of Dogs between 1920 and 1940.  Descriptions such as "scenic background" are used for cataloguing purposes.  Man's best friend also appeared in numerous sets by other manufacturers.

Zambesi Bridge, Rhodesia
Engineering Wonders no. 5
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1927

Other similar (and popular) themes to engineering included inventors and their inventions and "Did you know...?" pieces of information.  Some instructional sets were produced giving handy hints and tips or advice on how to solve everyday problems.

Alice in Wonderland (Round Corners)
Carreras Ltd., 1930

As well as producing sets of standard playing cards, some manufacturers devised their own games, such as this delightful set by Carreras.  The reverse (shown in the illustration) is the same for all the cards in the set.

Cards with deliberately rounded corners seem to be quite unusual, as most cigarette packets were rectangular!

Boulton Paul P.III (Jet)
British Aircraft no. 26
Carreras Ltd. (Turf Slides), 1953

The 1940s is another period from which few cards survive.  The subject matter of those which were produced concerned things such as first aid, fire-fighting and identification of enemy aircraft and avoided all topics that would either waste card or compromise the war effort.

After the war, cards like this one featuring information on the Allies' military hardware were once again allowed.

Unusually for its age, this set is printed in blue on white card, which has since discoloured.

Mischief Goes to Mars no. 1
Wrights Biscuits Ltd., 1954

The 1950s also saw the start of more modern subject material, such as this cartoon-based story about a group of children travelling to Mars with their uncle.

By now, trade cards were firmly established.  Soon the production of trade sets was to overtake that of true cigarette cards.

Common Lime
Trees in Britain no. 11
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1966

Traditional subject matter such as nature was not completely abandoned, however.  Trade card manufacturers produced sets covering a wide range of topics to suit all tastes, presumably in an attempt to entice a wide range of people to purchase their products.  This set about trees was issued with tea bags.

Day Clothes 1947
British Costume no. 49
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1967

The British Costume set is a well known, latter-day example of the tradition of history and natural history featuring on cards.  In this period, Brooke Bond was especially keen on these genres and produced many such sets.

The couple depicted on the card illustrated are modelling examples of Christian Dior's "New Look".

Stegosaurus
Prehistoric Animals no. 19
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1972

This is another example of cards which were probably aimed at children.

This particular card has an anecdotal story to accompany it.  One of the first Brooke Bond sets I collected was the History of Aviation.  I obtained the cards a few at a time until eventually I thought I had a full set...  until I found a Stegosaurus nestling among them in the place of the correct card no. 19!

Mary Rand
Olympic Greats no. 14
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1979

While cigarette card production seemed to have virtually ceased, manufacturers such as Brooke Bond and Liebig were still going strong.

Sports personalities had always been popular, and will probably continue to be in the future.  The set from which this card was taken features forty stars of the Olympic Games from all over the world.

The Jungle Book - King Louie
The Magical World of Disney no. 21
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1989

Technological advances applied to printing as well as other areas of the media.  We see that, by now, the quality of the images on cards was arguably higher than ever experienced on pre-war cigarette cards.  Take as an example this cartoon character from Disney's Jungle Book.

(uncatalogued Jurassic Park card)
Weetabix Ltd., 1993

The most recent cards are distinctive in their even greater diversity of subject material and audiences.  The card depicted here, which is based on the film Jurassic Park, was found in a box of cereal.

The side of the card shown, interestingly, has peel-off stickers, whilst the other side has a larger picture.  This is not too dissimilar in format to the older cigarette cards featuring push-out sections, which have invariably become more valuable as fewer survive entirely intact.

April 8
The Secret Diary of Kevin Tipps
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1995

This series of cards, which came with Brooke Bond PG Tips tea bags, feature pictures of the chimpanzees used in the company's television advertisements.

Notice the trend towards larger cards in the 1990s and the unusual numbering system of this particular set.  Since issuing this set, Brooke Bond have ceased issuing trade cards.

French 5^th Lancers
Soldiers of Waterloo no. 11
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd. (Castella), 1995

Does this card herald a return of cards from cigarette (and cigar) manufacturers and on more traditional subjects?  Perhaps such cards will become more common again as cigarette advertising is more tightly controlled.

Note that the card is larger than the previous standard.

Oxford v. Cambridge Boat Race
Homeland Events no. 40
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1932

The pictures on cigarette cards were not always hand-drawn;  sometimes photographs were used instead.  The example given here bears a photo of the Oxford versus Cambridge boat race.  It is taken from one of a handful of photographic sets produced before the Second World War.

Spring Flowering Anemones
Flower Studies no. 29
Godfrey Phillips Ltd., 1937

The picture on this card is taken from an existing painting, but it serves to illustrate that traditional, hand-drawn illustrations continued to be used on cigarette cards after it became possible (and economical) to produce photographic series.  Indeed, they still are to the present day.

Household Hints (Different) no. 6
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1936

and Household Hints (2nd Series) no. 6
W.D. & H.O. Wills Ltd., 1930

In the days of large quantity cigarette card production, it was not uncommon for manufacturers to reuse old subject material by producing several editions of popular sets.  In such cases, the set name and subject matter are the same for both or all editions.  However, the fronts and backs of all the cards are often totally different, as in this example.  The two cards illustrated are concerned with whitening a ceiling and carving respectively.

Careful examination shows that the card on the right in the illustration is marked "2nd series", making it quite easy to identify which series it came from.  However, it requires a little knowledge to realise that the card on the left, which bears no such markings and hence might appear to be from the first series, is actually newer than the card on the right.  We can tell this by the more modern, so-called "different" design of the layout of the back -- notice the less ornate box around the text and the message about the availability of albums for the cards at the top.

Trapdoor Spider
Incredible Creatures (Sheen Lane) no. 3
Brooke Bond & Co. Ltd., 1985

Like Wills' Household Hints, there exist several editions of this set.  However, the differences between them are more subtle.  The only difference between the three most common editions of this set is the manufacturer's address on the reverse.  The picture on the front (shown here) and the descriptive text are identical for all three.