Card of the Day - 2022-04-04

This card comes from a set designed to show that we were getting ready for war once more. There are no descriptions on the backs, which is a shame. 
The tank we show links to the fact that Churchill promoted the development of the initial tanks during the First World War, and the newly created Churchill Tank named in his honour was first used in 1942. I still don’t know what tank is shown here, but I will do my best to name it asap...

Louis Gerard was part of Rothmans Ltd, and had just the one outlet, 18 Burlington Arcade, which was almost certainly a shop, though they did have a factory in Underwood Street, North London. The shop would not have been large; you can tell that because today it is being operated as a handbag shop, and they also took the next door unit. 

This set consists of fifty cards and it can be found numbered or un-numbered. Oddly in 1950 the numbered version was more expensive/scarcer but today the un-numbered version commands a slightly higher price. 

Louis Gerard only issued three sets of cards, ours and a pair of film related sets both released in 1939. These are: 

 “Screen Favourites” (G275-700 : G30-2) a set of twenty-four un-numbered cards printed in brown with a yellowish tinge to the front, though the reference book also says the cards were varnished, so perhaps the yellow was accident rather than design. The cards can be found with either Louis Gerard & Company” or “Louis Gerard Limited” to the address. Check your set to see you have not got “a marriage”. The set was also issued by the parent company Rothmans, but it was re-titled to “Prominent Screen Favourites”.

and 

“Screen Favourites and Dancers – from actual photographs”, (G275-800 : G30-3) a set of forty-eight un-numbered cards with fronts in brown and the same back style as our set but different wording. Recently it was discovered that the cards were issued varnished and unvarnished and the backs are so slightly different that you will probably never see it – so I will try to remember to extract the picture from our current World Tobacco Issues Index. You will also find these same cards without any issuer (though it was actually a Teofani set) with the fronts in green, and with the wording “One of this attractive series of 48 Modern Movie Stars and Cinema Celebrities….” And they were also issued by The Premier Tobacco Mfrs., as “Eminent Stage & Screen Personalities – reproduced from actual photographs.