Our clue was that Lana Turner was known as "The Sweater Girl", not because she encouraged men to perspire, but because her curves were accentuated by the close embrace of a woollen sweater. However here she is shown as a brunette, rather than with the blonde hair which would make her famous. She had quite a life, to say the least, and was married eight times. I will divert you to one of the most fascinating biographies, which avoids most of the more lurid aspects of her life, and that can be found at the International Movie Database.
There is one really neat fact about this set, and that is that in most dealer`s catalogues this is the very first set listed in them !
The best description of this Abdulla set comes in our original reference book RB.5, to the issues of Abdulla, Adkin and Anstie. That tells us it is :
1938 50 BEAUTIES OF TODAY (titled series). Size 2 13/16 x 1 3/8. Numbered 1-50. Fronts, printed black only, letterpress – black and white, from screen blocks. Subjects titled : white margins. Varnished to give glossy appearance. Backs, printed in black, no descriptions. Similar to Godfrey Phillips` set but NOT coloured. Printed by Wass, Pritchard & Co. Ltd., London
Both our original and our updated World Tobacco Issues Index lists this in Abdulla section 2, English Language issues 1918-1943 and sub section 2A, export issues. About 1933-39. The description is identical in both, but has been shortened to : "BEAUTIES OF TO-DAY. Sm. 68 x 35. Black and white. Nd. (50)." It then continues with “See Ha.514” in the original, or “See RB.113/18” in the updated version - which is the updated Godfrey Phillips book.
Ha.514 says
BEAUTIES OF TO-DAY. (titled series). Numbered series of 50.
Abdulla – Front in black and white
Phillips – Front in light colour. See RB.13/18
For other series with this title see RB.13/17 and RB.13/19-29
RB.13/18 adds :
18. 50 “A series of 50 now being issued with these Cigarettes.” Fronts printed by offset process in colour. Backs in grey-black, some cards bear brief descriptive text. Home issue, 1938.
Abdulla & Co. Ltd were founded in London in 1902. Recorded as "cigarette specialists", they offered exotic blends of Virginian, Turkish, and Egyptian tobacco. By 1904 they were at 9 New Bond Street ; in 1929 they had moved to number 173, premises formerly occupied by Faberge. They also had a Berlin and a Netherlands Branch, and some arrangement in Shanghai which was overseen by agents Adolph Frankau & Co. Ltd, who had dealings of their own, importing and manufacturing pipes and tobacco paraphernalia. Their advertising played on their exoticism, you can see some of it at the Stanford University SRITA website ,
However, although this set says it was issued by Abdulla, that company had been part of Godfrey Phillips for three years, from 1926, and by the time this set was issued the Abdulla holdings in Berlin had also been "liquidated", an odd choice of words - that happened in 1934. I don`t know anything about the closing circumstances so maybe someone out there can tell me.
Now this set was also issued by Godfrey Phillips, as one of many sub series of "Beauties of To-Day" in various sizes. The codes on that are P521-408.2 and P-50-91.2 - the RB and Ha numbers remain the same, and all they do is tell us that the set was issued by both these makers. I am not sure why Phillips decided to issue this one batch with Abdulla on though - it cannot have been a success either, as they would have continued to issue the rest of the sub series.
Lastly in the curiosity department, if you look the Abdulla version of this set up in my old faithful London Cigarette Card Catalogue for 1950, there are no prices, just the kind of lines which usually denote out of stock. Does mean that it was hard to come by, or that it was just too popular? Any ideas?