Card of the Day - 2022-04-07

Godfrey Phillips Personalities of today
Godfrey Phillips [tobacco : UK] “Personalities of To-day” (1932) 5/25 – P521-354 : P50-74 : P/114 [RB.13/114]

Now here we have Winston Churchill as you have probably never seen him before. It is a strange, very modern set, looking a bit like a cross between a Lego and a Be@rbrick. And it was drawn, even more unusually, at the same time Ole Kirk Christiansen was inventing his wooden original of what would come to be called Lego two years later, in 1934.

This set is described in our original reference book to the issues of Godfrey Phillips, RB.13, as :

114. 25. PERSONALITIES OF TO-DAY. Small cards. Size 68 x 35 m/m. Fronts printed by offset process in colour. Backs in black, with descriptive text. Issued 1932.

In our World Tobacco Issues Indexes this has diminished to just :  "PERSONALITIES OF TO-DAY. Sm. 68 x 35. Nd. (25)"

The curious thing is that the artwork for these caricature cards are drawn in a very particular way, and yet nobody seems to know who drew them, not even the National Portrait Gallery, on whose website you can see all the cards in the set displayed. And do note that there are two sporting subjects amongst these personalities, which are often extracted and sold for more, leaving their compadres behind to be disposed of, quietly, and cheaply.