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

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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)

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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!