WW1 Cavalry Regimental Uniforms Horses Lancers Artillery Cossacks Russian Hussars John Player & Son Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

The huge revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility. That’s why horses were still widely used in WW1. The first standard issue military tanks did not join the war effort till quite late, and even those were very experimental and caused almost as much damage to the exhaust fume poisoned operatives as they did to the enemy.

John Player and Sons issued a number of beautifully illustrated military card sets leading up to and towards the beginning of WW1. This particular set is devoted to cavalry regiments and, judging by the unusual large size of the cards, would have been issued in the extra big packets. The bumper packets were not as popular as the regular packets, explaining why these cards are quite scarce. As with the early movie studios, the card issuers were reluctant to reveal the names of their artists. They feared that their staff would ask for more money if they became celebrities in their own right. However, attitudes changed as the pressures of the free market took effect.

John Player and Son, Regimental Uniforms, 1914 (10 extra large cards)

Includes:Belgian Army - 4th Regiment of Lancers, French Army - Artillery, Belgian Army - 2nd Chasseurs a Cheval, French Army - Spahi, French Army - Chasseurs a Cheval, Indian Army - 26th King George's Own Light Cavalry - Late 1st Madras Lancers, 13th Duke of Connaught's Lancers Watson's Horse - Late 13th Duke of Connaught's Bengal Lancers, Indian Army - Imperial Cadet Corps, Russian Army - Officer of Hussars, Russian Army - Trumpeter - Cossack of the Guard

If you would like to find out more about the military cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Rare 1900′s Harry Houdini $2000.00 Trading Card Memorabilia 1924 Frys Magic Tricks and Puzzles Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

Trading cards and cigarette cards were issued on a huge array of subjects, including that which has fascinated mankind since the beginning of time, magic. As with many card collecting subjects, there are certain cards that fetch colossal amounts of money. With baseball cards it’s Honus Wagner, one of which was the first card to exceed $1M, on eBay. With magic cards, the most sought after celebrity is Harry Houdini. His magic is still working after all these years as his cards conjure up nearly $2000.00 for a 1902 Ogden’s Guinea Gold card depicting him and almost £100.00 for a rare 1922 Boy’s Cinema (periodical) Famous Heroes card featuring this legendary man.

Although I, unfortunately, don’t have any Houdini cards in my collection, I do have a very rare Fry’s Tricks and Puzzles (Black Back), issued in 1924, just two years before Houdini’s death. This set includes fifty tricks/puzzles: disappearing coins, playing cards that produce smoke rings, dancing paper fairies, impossible handcuffs, bringing paper snakes to life and many more. One card also includes the politically incorrect act of creating silhouettes of different ethnic groups out of a candle and screwed up newspaper, not recommended these days. The backs of the cards in this set, as well as describing each trick and puzzle in detail , also advertise Fry’s “Cube Block Chocolate”, priced at just six pence each.


Click Here To See More

Ogden's Guinea Gold , New Series 1 B (featuring Harry Houdini), 1902

Boys Cinema , Famous Heroes (featuring Harry Houdini), 1922

JS Fry & Sons Ltd , Tricks and Puzzles (Black Back), 1924 (50 cards)

Includes:Sixpence and Card Trick, Mr, Roly Poly, The Surplus Spill, The Fairy Dancers, Chalk Line Puzzle, Handcuff Puzzle, The Mesmerised Match Box, The Miraculous Apple, The Travelling Cubes of Sugar, Can you Count?, The Wandering Ace, The Q Trick, To make Smoke Rings, The Rising Flood, Pricking the Garter, The Vanishing Coin, A Square Puzzle, The Floating Needle, Cut String Restored or Vanishing Knot, The Magic Match, Gravity Dafied, Bottle Coin and Match Trick, The Disappearing Shilling, Philosphy Cheated, The Magic Bond, The Travelling-Coin, The Mesmerised Walking Stick, The Vanishing Egg, The Penetrating Smoke, The Indestructible Star, The Penetrable Matches, The Erratic Egg, The Magic Ring, The Restored Handkerchief, The Torn Paper Puzzle, The Cut Finger Joke, The Incombustible Handkerchief, The Revolving Serpent, Hot is it done?, The Watch Trick, The Ridiculous Rings, The Magical Adhesion,The Cigarette Joke, The Wonderful Designer, The Tantalising Cork, The Magic Penny, The Intoxicated Wine Glass, One Two Three Gone, The Restored Slip of Paper

If you would like to find out more about the magic and Harry Houdini cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

1970's Star Wars & Pin-Up Girls Vintage Erotica on Dandy Gum Trading Cards

Click Here To See More

These saucy cards appeared in gum wrappers in the same year that Star Wars first graced our cinema screens, 1977. I bet Dandy gum was nicknamed “Randy Gum” after they issued this set of cards. This set features 1970’s pin-up girls in scanty bikinis with beautiful sea swept backgrounds. The playing card insets mean that you can easily use this set for card games. Although I wouldn’t recommend this, since I believe this set is quite rare. A full set of these does not appear in any of the major British card catalogues and I’ve never come across them myself.

Dandy Gum, Pin-up Girls, 1977 (playing card inset) (52 cards)

If you would like to find out more about the classic cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Pre WW1 Army Life: Manned Kite, Hot Air Balloon, Wireless Telegraphy (Early Radio) on Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

This is one of the few military card sets issued just before WW1. It includes an unusual manned kite, designed by the aviator Mr. SF Cody, and shows a hot air balloon being used for observation. One card features an early Holt Caterpillar steam tractor, which inspired the designs of the first ever standard issue military tanks of WW1. Wireless telegraphy (radio communication) was quite new when this set was issued and one card features a field telegraph office, which looks like a small tent. Several cards show that horses were still widely used, although a motor car makes an appearance on card no. 23.

Army Life, John Player and Sons, 1910, 25 cards

Includes:Bringing in Wounded Man,Field Waggons,War Kite Drill (manned kit or man-lifting kite),Laying a Field Telegraph Line,Firing from a Gun Pit,Pitching Tents,Watering Horses,Filtering Water,Field Telegraph Officer (Radio Communication),Jumping with Led Horses,Bayonet Fighting,Lamp Signalling,Map Reading Class, Picking Up Wounded,Cyclist Scout Section,Unpacking Waggons,Mechanical Transport Section (Caterpillar Steam Tractor (Designed by Benjamin Holt)- Inpspiration for WW1 Tanks),Lance versus Sword,Making Gas for War Baloons,Filling War Baloons,Searchlight Section,Baloon Drill,Starting the Engine,Presentation of Long Service Medals,Flag Signalling

If you would like to find out more about the pre WW1 cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

WW1 Weapons Maxim Machine Gun Howitzer Aviation Armoured Vehicle Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

WW1 was arguably the most significant war in the history of mankind. As well as wiping 9 million combatants off the face of the earth, it also laid the foundations for future wars. Financial crises and discontentment among Russian and German citizens would trigger the Russian revolution and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. These would culminate in both the Cold War and WW2.

This set of cards features many powerful weapons used by the British forces in WW1. The British were a bit slow in utilising the machine gun at the beginning of the war but this soon changed when large numbers of their soldiers were slain by this killing machine. In fact the British became so enthusiastic that they created a special Machine Gun Corps in the same year that this set was issued. This could explain why the Maxim machine gun is featured on several cards. The howitzer artillery piece, which appears on several cards, was designed to fire shells at high trajectories over obstacles. A couple of cards show recent WW1 technological developments, including the aeroplane and an armoured car. One card shows that horses were still being used for transporting heavy artillery.

Modern Weapons (WW1), Ogden's, 1915, 50 cards

Includes:12 Pounder Gun on A Destroyer,92 in Gun In Barbette,Torpedo Leaving Ship's Side,47 in Gun Charge And Projectile / Missile,Maxim Gun Drill,Monster Guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery,Torpedo Just Left The Tube,Torpedo Entering The Water,5 in Howitzer Brigade, Infantry Machine Guns,Maxim Gun Drill RN,The New Aerial Missiles,The Forward Four 13.5 in Guns on HMS Monarch,6 in Howitzer Garrison Artillery,12 in Guns In Turrets - H.M.S. Neptune,The Fore Barbette Of HMS Victorious,A Naval 12 Pounder Gun,Inserting The Torpedo In Its Tube,12in Guns HMS Dreadnought,German Mortar Siege Gun,Comparative Sizes of Guns and Projectiles,6 in Gun - Royal Garrison Artillery,British Armoured Motor Car,Laying A Mine,Dropping Bombs From Aeroplane,18 pounder Gun Entrenched RFA, Shells ETC Used In The British Navy,5 in Heavy Field Gun,Maxim Machine Gun In Action,5 in Howitzer Brigade,A Pair of Neptune Fangs,Inside 12in Barbette Loading By Hydraulic Ram,Guns Out HMS Dreadnought,12 in Guns HMS Bellerophon,German Artillery - Observation Ladders and Shields,Latest German Howitzer,A Contact Mine,A Naval Field Gun,German Heavy Gun Used As A Field Weapon,Howitzer Gun Supported On Steel Arms,12.5 in Projectiles On The Deck of A Dreadnough,Torpedo Boats - Showing Deck Tubes,Dreadnought Cleared For Action,The Fore Barbette Of HMS Victorious,Maxim Automatic Machine Gun Under Cover,Whitehead Torpedoes,Maxim Fully Automatic Machine Gun Instruction RN,German Range Finder In Use,13.5 in Guns HMS Royal Sovereign

If you would like to find out more about the WW1 cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

1900′s Beauties Edwardian Era Glamour Fashion, Hats and Hairstyles on Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

Who said card collecting can’t be sexy hey?! Beautiful women appeared on some of the first ever cigarette cards. They were extremely popular with customers, most of whom were men during late 19th century. Those pioneering cards would have been quite shocking for their time. I bet the sanctimonious church-going puritans would have disapproved of the immoral illustrations on these cards . Of course, they are very tame by present day standards but this just shows how times have changed..

Here’s a set of Beauties (Leaf backs with playing card inset fronts), issued by the British American Tobacco Company in 1908. Wow! That’s over a century ago. These Edwardian era cards certainly are beautiful. They have immortalised a vast array of attractive actresses, dancers and music hall artists dressed in colourful and mesmerizing vintage clothing. Unfortunately these bygone personalities are not named, which was quite often the case on these early cards. Who needs Dr Who’s Tardis when we can gaze through these card windows to a world that is almost unrecognizable today. Society’s innocence and simplicity, mirrored on these cards, would vanish in the apocalyptic thunder of WW1 artillery, gas and machine gun fire. The 20th century juggernaut would promise a supposedly utopian modern world.

Is it any wonder that fashion designers and pop stars of today - Katy Perry, Amy Winehouse and Paloma faith to name a few - are turning back the hands of time to recreate the styles of this magical period. Why mimic the diluted interpretations of today’s trend setters when you can draw your own inspiration straight from that breathtaking period with these iconic cards.

These cards have stood the test of time, lasting over a hundred years. How much of today’s throw-away, consumerist society will last as long. Today’s consumables are designed to deteriorate as soon as we buy them to force us into buying infinitely more from a finite planet. We will soon find out how sustainable this way of life really is. I think that collecting antiques is very commendable, since we learn from history and recycle it and preserve it for future generations.

Beauties, Playing Card Inset (Leaf Back), British American Tobacco Company, 52 cards

If you would like to find out more about the Edwardian Glamour cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

1950's and 1940's Pin Up Girls Vintage Erotica Risque Phillip Allman Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

I’ve decided to take a slight detour from reviewing early 20th century military card sets, but even these pin-up girl cards have links with warfare. Artists decorated American fighter planes with seductive pin-up girls. Perhaps these Sirens distracted the WW2 Luftwaffe as the US gunners took aim.

Pin-up girl art was popular with both servicemen and civilians before colour photography really took hold. A number of artists made names for themselves specialising in this art form: Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren and George Petty. With Fashion designers and pop icons, such as Katy Perry and Amy Winehouse, increasingly being influenced by vintage styles, there is currently a resurgence in interest in Pin-up girl art.

This particular pin-up girl cigarette card set was issued by Allman in 1953, more than half a century ago. It is one of the few series of cigarette cards issued after WW2. Cigarette cards became one of the many casualties of the war as British paper rationing took effect. Most of the British tobacco companies came to a gentleman’s agreement not to restart card production after the war. This is despite the fact that these humble cards had helped put them in the powerful, monopolistic positions that they now enjoyed.

Allman bucked the trend by resurrecting cigarette card issues briefly in the early 1950s and looked to the origins of cards for inspiration in choosing a subject for their first set. A high proportion of the early cigarette cards featured pretty girls, indicating that even as early as the 19th century card issuers knew the selling power of sex.

As with the early cigarette cards Allman tragically failed to mention the name of the artist whose illustrations adorn these beautiful cards. I’m a card collector and I’m not an expert on pin-up girl art but I’m sure some of you will know who the artist is. Please leave a comment below. Also, was your great grandma a glamour model? Maybe she is featured on one of these cards. Please feel free to comment if you are related to any of these beauties.

Phillip Allman, Pin-Up Girls (1940s and 1950s), 1953 (12 cards)

If you would like to find out more about the classic cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Roaring Twenties: 1920's Glamour and Bathing Costumes Vintage Erotica Risque Photos Cigarette Cards

Click Here To See More

Whilst men went off to fight in WW1, women were involved in a more subtle war closer to home. Women filled many of the new job vacancies left by male war recruits. This role changing achieved more than any amount of suffragette campaigning in re-shaping the public attitude towards the female gender. Surely it wasn’t just a coincidence that women from many countries won the right to vote soon after the WW1 ended.

Women’s rebelliousness and new found freedoms dramatically influenced female fashion in the 1920s, taking on a more androgynous look. Their hair became shorter and their clothing much more daring than before WW1.

Luckily, women didn’t desert their femininity completely, as these lovely late 1920’s cigarette

Real Photos (Glamour) (Space on back), RJ Hill, 1930, 42 cards

If you would like to find out more about the 1920's vintage erotica cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Famous Footballers In the 1920s ( Hughie Gallacher ) On Cigarette cards by Gallaher

Click Here To See More

Association football (soccer) started in the back yards of Victorian British public schools, but went on to become a global phenomenon for poor and rich alike. This happened in less than 100 years.

The most complete pictorial record of the early 20th century football pioneers can be found on cigarette cards and trading cards. These cards were issued at a time when television and radio were non-existent and colourless newspapers were read by the educated few. Gallaher was one of the firms that produced a number of footballer sets, including “Famous Footballers”, 1926. Although famous in their day, Hughie Gallacher is one of the few from this set to go on to become a timeless legend.

Gallaher, Famous Footballers (Brown Back, 50 cards), 1926

Includes:Josepth Smith of Bolton Wanderers,William Clunas of Sunderland,Harry Healless,Harry Storer Derby County,Fred W Kean of Sheffield Wednesday,John Duncan of Leicester City,Chas M Buchan of Arsenal,Donald McKinlay of Liverpool,John H Hill of Burnley,Hunter, Hart of Everton,Fred WM Reed of West Bromwich Albion,WMH Walker of Aston Villa,William Gillespie of Sheffield United,Francis Womack of Birmingham,Clement Stephenson of Huddersfield Town,William Stage of Bury,Fred C Keenor of Cardiff City,Sydney M Bishop, of Leicester City,Hugh Gallacher of Newcastle United,John E Elkes of Tottenham Hotspurs,Robert S Wallace of Nottingham Forest Notts Forest,John Priestley of Chelsea,James McMullan of Manchester City Leonard F Oliver of Fulham,William Birrell of, Middlesbrough,George C Harkus of Southampton,William Ashurst,John Maddock of Port Vale,Michael Gilhooley of Bradford City,Lawrence H Baker of Barnsley,Thomas Greaves of Darlington,William R Wainscoat of Leeds United,Arthur Wood of Clapton Orient,, John J Hardy of Grimsby Town,Joseph Sykes of Swansea Town,Sydney Binks of Blackpool,Robert M Eggo of Reading,Henry Wilson of South Sheilds,Frank Barson of Manchester United,James Martin of Portsmouth,Samuel Wynne of Oldham Athletic,Matthew Bell of Hull

If you would like to find out more about the 1920's famous footballer cigarette cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

WW2 Air-Raids Gas Masks Bomb Shelters Fighter Planes Incendiary Bombs On Cigarette Cards By Churchman 1938

Click Here To See More

As war clouds loomed ever closer this set was issued to provide civilians with helpful information on building a bomb shelter , protecting windows from blasts and dealing with incendiary bombs. A large part of the set is devoted to gas masks but, luckily, there were no gas attacks on Britain during WW2. Many of the cards provide reassurances on how the home front would be protected, featuring anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, balloon barrages, air defence control rooms and fighter planes.

WA & AC Churchman, Air-Raid Precautions, 1938 (48 cards)

Includes:Choosing your Refuge Room,Rendering Your Refuge Room Gas-Proof,Making a Door Gas-Proof,Window Protection,Window Protection Agains Blast,Types of Splinter-Proof Wall,Protecting Your Windows - A Sandbag Defence,Equipping your Refuge Room,Equipping Your, Refuge Room,A Garden Dug-Out,Incendiary Bomb and its Effect,Incendiary Bomb Cooling Down,Control Of Incendiary Bomb,Removal of Incendiary Bomb with Scoop and Hoe,Extinction of Incendiary Bomb,The Stirrup Hand Pump,Two-Men Portable Manual Fire-Pump in, Action,A Chain of Buckets,Light Trailer Fire-Pump,Medium Trailer Fire-Pump,Medium Trailer Fire-Pump in Action,Emergency Heavy Pump Unit,Hose-Laying Lorry,The Civilian Respirator,How to Adjust It,How To Remove It,The Civilian Duty Gas Mask,The Service Gas, Mask,A Heavy Anti-Gas Suit,Rubber Clothing,Air Raid Wardens and Civilian Volunteer Despatch-Rider,Volunteer Mobile Corps Owner Drivers,A First Aid Party,Supply Depot For Gas Masks,Mobile Gas Vans,Civilian Anti-Gas School,Testing For Gas Contamination,, Decontamination Workers in Training,Air Raid Precautions Badge,Representation of Air Defence Control Room,Pilots Running To Machines Interceptor Fighters Take Off,Gloster Gauntlet Interceptor Fighters,Representation of Baloon Barrage for Defence of London

If you would like to find out more about the WW2 air-raid cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Grandma Was A Porn Star – 1930’s Glamorous Movie Stars (Vintage Erotica) Cigarette Cards By Rothmans Anna May Wong Ann Dvorak 1934

Click Here To See More

Tobacco card issuers knew way back in the 1880s that sex sells and that’s why pretty girls and actresses adorn many early tobacco cards. In the USA and England, these cards of the fairer sex stopped short of nudity but card issuers in South America and North Africa were more daring. The movie world started out as a novelty pastime for inventors and amateur enthusiasts in the late nineteenth century but snowballed into a huge global industry in the 1920s and 1930s.

The card set featured in this blog is about as close as you get to pornography for the masses in the 1930s. It includes several cards of the film star Anne Grey with what looks like a see-through top on, Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American movie star, Sidney Fox, whose life ended tragically with an overdose, Ann Dvorak, whose prolific movie career secured her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and many other movie stars in seductive poses.

Rothmans, Prominent Screen Favourites, 1934 (24 cards)

Includes:Judy Kelly,Claudia Dell,Ann Dvorak,Anne Grey,Joan Wyncham,Lucile Browne,Mirian Sherry,Dorothy Bouchier,Mary Duncan,Heather Angel,Anna May Wong,Anne Grey,Anne Grey,Edna Earle,Betty Stockfeld,Betty Stockfeld,Dorothy Boyd,Dorothy Bartlam,Dorothy Bartlam,, Vivienne Osborne,Jeanette Loff,Sidney Fox,Dorothy Bartlam,Dorothy Bartlam,

If you would like to find out more about the glamorous 1930's movie star cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

1950's Pin-Up Girls (Risque Vintage Erotica) Cigarette Cards by Phillip Allman and Co 1953

Sample scan

1950's Pin-Up Girls (Vintage Erotica)

There were many casualties during WW2 and one of them was the cigarette card. Due to severe paper rationing card production came to a virtual standstill. The huge tobacco empires that the cards had helped promote and build up from small businesses decided to turn their backs on future card production at the end of the war. Only a handful of true cigarette card series were ever issued after WW2 and this Pin-Up girl set, by Allman, is one of those rare treasures. It features artwork of pin-up girls. This genre of art was popularized by artists such as Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren, and George Petty.

Phillip Allman and Co, Pin Up Girls, 1st (Unnumbered, "For Men Only"), 1953 (12 cards)

If you would like to find out more about the classic card set of 1950's pin-up girls (vintage erotica) featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!

Scarce Silent Film Star Cigarette Cards Of Lon Chaney, Marion Davies, Colleen Moore, Jackie Coogan .... By R and J Hill

Sample scan

The End Of An Era

Although this rare set of cards features many of the movie icons from the silent era, it was issued in 1932 when the inclusion of sound was becoming more popular. Sadly, many of the careers of these early icons fell silent as they struggled to cope with the advent of the talkies. Marion Davies, despite her slight stutter, managed to continue acting in the movies well into the 1930s. Lon Chaney’s life was cut short by an illness before he could properly prove himself in the new era. His versatile voice and wide range of talents would have served him well during this formidable transition. Chaney’s mastery of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters have made cigarette cards and trading cards that feature him firm favourites of collectors of early movie memorabilia.

R and J Hill, Famous Cinema Celebrities, Series D (No Brand), 1932 (50 cards)

Includes:Harold Lloyd, Claire Windsor, Laura La Plante, Estelle Taylor, Alice Terry, Antonio Moreno, Ramon Novarro, Norman Shearer, May McAvoy, William Haines, Conrad Nagel, Rin Tin-Tin, John Gilbert, Pauline Starke, Lon Chaney, Renee Adoree, Patsy Ruth Miller,, Dlores Costello, Irene Rich, John Stuart, Jack Mulhall, Ruth Roland, Corinne Griffith, Norma Talmadge, Coleen Moore, Pat O'Mally, Jack Holt, Dorothy Gish, Agnes Ayres, Richard Barthlemess, James Kirkwood, Leatrice Joy, Wesley Barry, Betty Blythe,, Lew Cody, Richard Cortez, Jackie Coogan, Alice Terry, Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, Betty Compson, Doris Kenyon, Conway Tearle, Mary Philbin, Alice Joyce, Renee Adoree, Dorothy Mackaill, Alice White, Yola D'avril,

If you would like to find out more about the silent movie star cards featured in this blog please click here.
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you found it interesting!