Card of the Day - 2022-05-31

This version should actually be listed as anonymous, because it is only branded with "Kensitas", and the Wix name does not appear, but because this set was also issued with the Wix name it has been linked.

These are very well made cards, and the frame is most attractive, even more so in the alternative J. Wix printing, which comes in a linen finish or a varnished version.

This, of course, was one of the sets issued to mark the Coronation of King George VI, whose daughters were Princesses Elizabeth, our current Queen, and her sister Margaret. The first two cards show King George VI and his Queen, who would become the Queen Mother. George`s mother, Princess Mary, was card 3. She was still alive when her son died, so she knew her granddaughter was to become Queen, but she died in March 1953, just three months before the actual Coronation could take place

J. Wix & Sons were founded in 1898 as Wix & Lockerman and had premises at 30 Commercial Street in East London and 24/26 Shepherdess Walk in North London. The business was sold in 1927. Two years later the sons bought International Tobacco Co and Peter Jackson Ltd but sold both to Gallaher in 1934. These names then disappeared in the UK but were still used overseas. It seems that there is some link to A & M Wix, which I admit I do not understand.

In 1946 the company was controlled by the American Tobacco Company and based at Old Street in East London, E.C.1.