Card of the Day - 2022-02-10

This is a curious set indeed, it is untitled and anonymous as regards a cigarette company, only an advertisement, for Black and White Whisky; and I cannot yet supply you with a reference code, because I can`t track it down in the World Tobacco Issues Index. However you can read a bit more at the American website Pre-War Cards, who call it Flags, Arms, and Types of All Nations, and also credit R. &  J. Hill as a co-issuer.

The set shows people in National Costume holding a flag, hence it was recorded by different collectors as both “National Types”, and “National Flags”. You can also find it with just a plain back, and that is believed to have been issued by Henry Archer & Co., a tobacco company which was founded in 1850 and actually merged with Hill in 1905, during which Mr. H.C. Archer became managing director of Hill’s.  

How we got to Hill as the issuer was that these fronts were also issued by Hill as a titled set, “Hill’s National Flag Series” in 1914; also that the exact same square “Black and White Whisky” advertisement appears on two other sets which were issued by Hill, their “Continental Actresses”, and on one of their versions of “Statuary”. But why Hill would issue a set which has no reference to them, and advertises someone else’s product is curious indeed. 

There are several errors in the set, starting with Great Britain, who was first printed with the wrong flag; the original was a kind of red solid, recorded as a “Red Ensign with the white missing”. This was later replaced by the Union Jack. As the cards were printed in Germany, in 1914, there might well be a deeper reason for this. Another error is “Birma”, using an “I” not a “U”. And Italy has a very curious initial letter.