Here we have the world famous Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie. She came from Norway, and her first Olympics was on the same rink as John Ferguson Page, in 1924. She was just eleven years old, the reigning Norwegian Champion, and she came plumb last. However in her next three Olympics she won gold (1928: St. Moritz, Switzerland - 1932: Lake Placid, New York - 1936: Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany)
She was featured on many cigarette cards, especially in Europe, where she features quite heavily in a set called “Bulgaria-Sport-Photos” by Bulgaria Zigarettenfabrik of Dresden. And one of those cards has a link to more modern times as the photo on card 193/272 was also used by Brooke Bond as card 38/50 in “Olympic Greats”.
She also appears leaping above the ice on Pattrieouex “Sporting Events and Stars”, where it calls her “The undisputed holder of the World`s Figure Skating Championship, which she wrested from Frau Jaros Szabo at Oslo in 1927…” and on African Tobacco World of Sport #63 (1939)
What you may not know is that she also had another career, as a film star. Carreras Ltd shows us this in their set “Film & Stage Beauties” (1939) where she is card 18/54; at that time she was under contract to Twentieth Century Fox. Probably her best film is “Sun Valley Serenade”, (1941), where she appeared with Glenn Miller, just three years before his untimely death.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this group appears as :
DIE WELT IM BILDERN (The World in Pictures). Nd. See X24-8.F
1. Sets 1-5. Size 58 x 40
1. Serie 1-24. (144)
2. Serie 25-72. (144)
3. Serie 73-124. (156)
4. Serie 125-176. (156)
5. Serie 177-214. (180)
2. Sets 6-8. Size 60 x 43
6. European Flags. Nd. 1/200. (200)
7. Non-European Flags. Nd. 201-400. (200)
8. Titled “Historische Fahnen” (Historical Flags). Nd. 1/240. (240)
Now the “X” code, which is the only thing missing from our updated volume of the World Tobacco Issues Index, is a pointer to the handbook, which was originally a separate book to the World Tobacco Issues Index but then became combined. That lists all nine other issuers of this set, the parts they issued, and it also shows the back variations, so it is scanned below!
As we have featured one of these issuers before, we will also add in a link list -
- A. Bulgaria.
- B. Constantin
- C. Delta
- D. Eckstein-Halpaus
- E. Jasmatzi (newsletter 2023-09-02 - but first up, Sat.2nd Dec.2023)
- F. Josetti
- G. Manoli
- H. Salem (newsletter 2024-08-17 - on Saturday 17th August 2024)
- I. Sulima
- J. Yenidze
