CIGARETTE CARDS SET OF 50 FILM STARS 2ND SERIES 1934 JOHN PLAYER

CIGARETTE AND TRADE CARDS  

I STARTED WITH MY BROTHER BUYING AND SELLING CARDS BACK IN 1978 MAINLY AT AN OPEN AIR MARKET STALL AT DERBY IN THE UK. DURING THOSE EARLY YEARS WE TRADED THOUSANDS OF CARDS AND BUILT UP VAST STOCKS, DURING THE 1980’S AND 1990’S WE CONCENTRATED ON BUILDING UP STOCKS OF MAGAZINES AND COMICS AND THE CARD TRADE TOOK A BIT OF A BACK SEAT BUT NOW I HAVE DECIDED IT’S TIME TO START OFFERING SOME OF THE HUNDREDS OF SETS AND THOUSANDS OF SINGLE CARDS ACQUIRED IN THOSE EARLY DAYS. 

ALL CARDS SOLD BY TILLEYS ARE GUARANTEED ORIGINAL

The images shown are for the cards on sale : 

Click on the image and enlarge it to view the condition of the cards

CONDITION : CARDS WILL GENERALLY BE IN CLEAN  CONDITION . SOME CARDS MAY HAVE MINOR CREASING  / MINOR SOILING 

CIGARETTE CARDS

Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands.

Between 1875 and the 1940s, cigarette companies often included collectible cards with their packages of cigarettes. Cigarette card sets document popular culture from the turn of the century, often depicting the period’s actresses, costumes, and sports, as well as offering insights into mainstream humour and cultural norms.^[1]

Beginning in 1875, cards depicting actresses, baseball players, Indian chiefs, boxers, national flags or wild animals were issued by the U.S.-based Allen & Ginter tobacco company. These are considered to be some of the first cigarette cards.^[2] 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 association 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^[3] and city views.

Imperial Tobacco Canada manufactured the first ice hockey cards ever for the inaugural NHL season. There were a total of 36 cards in the set, each one featured an illustration of a player.^[4] After World War I, only one more cigarette set was issued, during 1924–25.

Today, for example, sports and military historians study these cards for details on uniform design.^[5]

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.

Doral, an R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company brand, started printing cigarette cards in the year 2000. These were the first cigarette cards from a major manufacturer since the 1940s.,^[6] although the small company Carreras in the UK issued cigarette cards with Turf brand cigarettes for a short period in the 1950s and 1960s, Black Cat brand in 1976.^[7][8] Furthermore, card-like coupons with special offers have often been included in cigarette packets over the years.

The first set of “Doral Celebrate America” cards featured the 50 states in two releases, 2000 and 2001. Later themes include American festivals, cars, national parks, and 20th century events.

Natural American Spirit, another R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company brand, also includes cigarette cards on their packs, with information on such things as windpower, diversity, and their farmers.

Philip Morris USA started including “Information For Smokers” cigarette cards in certain packs. One provides information on quitting smoking and the other states that “Light, “Ultra Light”, “Mild”, “Medium”, and “Low Tar” cigarettes are just as harmful as “Full Flavor” ones.

The most valuable cigarette card in the world features Honus Wagner, one of the great names in U.S. baseball at the turn of the 20th century. The T206 Honus Wagner has repeatedly set records at auction, most recently in 2016 when it sold for $3,120,000.^[9] Wagner was a dedicated non-smoker and objected when America’s biggest tobacco corporation planned to picture him on a cigarette card without his permission.^[10] Threats of legal action prevented its release, but a few slipped out, and it was one of these that stunned the collecting world when it was auctioned.

Another notable and sought-after set of cards is the untitled series issued by Taddy and known by collectors as “Clowns and Circus Artistes”. While not the rarest cards in existence (there are a number of series in which only one known example remains), they are still very rare and command high prices whenever they come up for auction.

The Mecca cigarette trading card for George Sutton is also notable for it depicts him with hands. Sutton was known as “the handless billiard player”^[11] for mastering the game with such a handicap.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia