Any cigarette/tea card collectors here?

[graham]

Hi all, was just wondering whether anyone on AFA collects cards? I've been a collector for some time, tending to concentrate on transport,e.g. aviation, railways, cars, motorbikes, ships, etc although I do also have hundreds of general interest sets.

Would be good to hear from anyone who is a collector.

[davebasing]

Hi Graham. Don't myself but my wife has a very extensive collection of woven (i.e. not printed) silk cigarette cards. She began years ago with the Kensitas silk flowers series but has expanded the collection to include Dutch Turmac silks (including the antique sailing ship series) and others from Germany etc. Pre COVID we used to go to various card fairs around the south. Interesting to see what other members' interests are outside of aviation. In my case its family history (which I've been doing for some 30 odd years) and wildlife photography (including polar bears in the Arctic; black brown and Kermode white bears in the wilds of British Columbia; the Amazon rain forest; Galapagos; Africa; and the penguins of Antarctica). We have a trip booked to Madagascar next year for the lemurs but Covid may get in the way of that one.

[graham]

Thanks for the reply Dave, I really know nothing about silk cards although a couple of FB groups I'm on seem to include many collectors of them. Some sets I have are worth a bit but others were printed in such vast numbers that even a century or more later, they're worth little more than a few quid. But I wouldn't sell them anyway.

I have a Wills set from 1931 entitled "Cinema Stars", it's set of 50 large cards, two of which are especially sought after and one which is very valuable. I have 49 of the set, making it worth £45 if I'm lucky, but if I could find card #24 which features Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, a so called "Rookie Card" as it was the first time Walt/Mickey appeared on any card, the set would be worth at least a thousand and possibly a lot more dependent upon their condition. That #24 card often sells on Ebay for a thousand quid which puts it well beyond my affordability but you never, know, I might find one one day.

The sheer numbers of aviation sets printed by hundreds of different producers of cigarettes, tea and other foods is mind boggling, especially during what I suppose you'd call the golden age of British Aviation in the 50s and 60s. And many companies issued the same sets, I have a black and white set from 1953 called "Modern Aircraft" that was issued by several different companies using the same photographs

[dave]

hi Graham,
not for a good few years, i remember just, at schoolage, a set of world cricketers, on a visit to friends near Aldershot dad went into a tobacconists and bought me a set of Army regimental badges, and my biggest collection (cause dad smoked heavy) was Turf, which had Aeroplanes on the inside card holding the cigarettes, 1 in 10, and 2 in 20's. All long gone... thanks for stirring the memories.

stay safe, regards,
dave...

[jargon]

Hi Graham
Brooke Bond PG Tip Tea Cards are the firsts things I remember swapping at primary school, along with coins and cards from fuel purchases and items arriving in cereal packets as well as Panini football stars

I remember slitting the side of the loose tea PG Rips box without damaging the inside packet and extracting the cards. I'm guessing all the PG Tip cards are from the Mid Fifties to the Mid seventies and mainly glued in the albums

I have other Tea cards and Cigarette cards which were my dads including
Wills 'Arms of Companies' 'Arms of Foreign Cities' 'Garden Flowers' 'Wild Flowers' 'Garden Flowers' again but a different series
John Player 'Modern Naval Craft' 'Animals of the Countryside' 'The Kings and Queens of England' Coronation series(George VI) the Players look complete
Kelloggs Cars a set of 40 and there look to be about 30

We also have a box of part sets, oddments, never put in an album and surplus.

I'm fairly sure I've never see a silk card in the box, but cigarette cards yes

John

[graham]

Hi John, yes, I too as a child loved to find the cards in the Brooke Bond loose tea packets, and I was lucky as my Grandma bought the Dividend D tea and my Mum bought P G Tips. It's still one of those aromas that sends me back to my childhood, the smell of fresh tea leaves.

Wills were hugely prolific card issuers, they brought out about 160 sets over the years with those from the very late 1890's worth a small fortune, not that they ever come up for sale on the likes of Ebay.

The cigar companies were also good for cards, Tom Thumb, Grandee, Castella, Doncella, all were Wills brands too, their cards were larger than the standard card size like Brooke Bond and were very good quality mini photographs although of course much younger than their parent company's sets.

Cards that were stuck into albums are worth less than loose ones, most likely because if they're in albums, you can't read the descriptions on the reverse and of course, if you try to remove them, they'll end up damaged.