![A745-230 : A72-12 [tobacco :UK export] Ardath Tobacco Co. Ltd. London "Modern School Atlas" (1936/37?) 1/96](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-05/30%20april%20%281%29%20-%20Copy.jpg?itok=JJeaIbae)
Now this second clue gave you "America" as shown on the map.
These do appear in our Ardath Reference Book RB.6, issued in 1943, but they are rather hidden in the same paragraph as the New Zealand version of "Life in the Services" and without a date, only the "December 1937" which starts the section for "Life in the Services".
They are not even referred to as cards, for the full text says :
96 Map Inserts. Size 1 3/8" x 2 5/8". Printed by offset in full colours on thin paper, not titled, black frame line, with white margins. Backs printed in grey, numbered, no description. Front a map section, back, "No. __ of series of Inserts for insertion in the Ardath Modern School Atlas". Issued in New Zealand. Atlas price 1/-. The blank space is completed by the card.
Our original and most recent World Tobacco Issues Index lists them identically, as "Ardath Modern School Atlas. Sm., on thick paper. Nd. (96) Export. Special Atlas issued."
The “thick paper” obviously stands for the fact that these were thinner than the usual card-board used for cigarette cards, and that these might well have been one of the forerunners of the sticker – in more ways than one, as look again at where it says “Atlas price 1/-. The blank space is completed by the card”, for that means the atlas was a fully printed item, much as sticker books are today, and the card/sticker replaced the white space and produced the full map.
I have not yet seen the inside of an album, but I have now seen the cover, as can you, at Mokau Museum, in New Zealand This begs another question though, that being how did Geographia Ltd get themselves involved with producing these items?
Anyone able to shed some light on that, please do get in touch with us.