Card of the Day - 2023-03-03

Godfrey Phillips Flower Studies
Godfrey Phillips [tobacco : UK] "Flower Studies" or "Cut Flowers" (1937) 29/30 - P521-448A : P50-110A : Ph/80A (RB.13/80A)

This is the anemone, which comes into flower in March. 

Our set appears in the original Godfrey Phillips Reference Book RB.13, issued in 1949. There it is described as : 

80. 30 Flower Studies. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in black with brief descriptive text. The series was issued in two sizes:
A) medium cards, size 61 x 53 m/m. Cards entitled "Flower Studies". Issued 1937
B) postcard size 128 x 89 m/m. Backs in postcard format. No series title appears on the cards. This series has previously been known as "Cut Flowers". Home and Export issue. 1937. 

I have not been able to find this set in dealers listings with the "Cut Flowers" title, but something may turn up as I go through my library one day. 

There is another fascinating fact about this card, and that is where it says "Vivex". For this was a very early form of colour photography, invented by a research chemist called Dr. Douglas Arthur Spencer, and right up until the Second World War it was the main source of all colour images. The process was very curious as well, for it used three coloured negatives (blue, red, and yellow) on cellophane, from which the images were washed off after a certain time, but it was found that they had magically left behind an image in almost three dimensional form.