Card of the Day - 2022-06-02

Here is one of the earliest cards of the little eight year old princess who would become Queen Elizabeth II, and reign for seventy years - more than thirty years longer than her predecessor, Queen Elizabeth I. 

Our set has gained some notoriety, for being one of the few cigarette cards to show Adolf Hitler, however he appeared on many cards issued in Germany, including an entire set devoted to his daily life and works. Whilst the most popular card from the 1935 set is definitely Walt Disney, sans Mickey Mouse - a card which has recently been selling all on its ownsome for pretty high figures, and sadly led to the rise in part sets of 49/50 cards flooding the market. 

A complete checklist of the set appears at Immortal Ephemera - and a link to the 1935 version appears within that text.

The pair are described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as : 

 A GALLERY OF 1934. Sm. Flesh-tinted. Nd. (50). Special album issued... M122-33

A GALLERY OF 1935. Sm. Lightly coloured. Nd. (50). ... M122-34

That album cost one penny, and is quite scarce, I am not sure why. However I have been shown one, and it is quite striking, with a large beige cartouche on the front which contains a cameraman and the words "A GALLERY OF 1934" above. From each side of the cartouche comes a film strip, with a golfer sideways on. This may lead you to think that this is a card from the series, but it is not, all the cards are portrait in format. There are several golfers there though, starting with card 27 of Nancy Jupp, and going in sequence through Henry Cotton, Mrs. Andrew Holm and W. Lawson Little. Now where the film strip curves round there is additional text, which reads "A series of portraits of PEOPLE IN THE NEWS now being issued with Mitchell`s "PRIZE CROP" Cigarettes."

That means we now know the brand in which the cards were issued, Prize Crop, and that was both cigarettes and tobacco.  Not sure when that brand started, but Stephen Mitchell were founded in 1723.