This is an unusual series showing pottery figurines, most of which were indeed produced in the Staffordshire area. You can read more about the potter, John Bacon, at TheChipstoneFoundation/Bacon - where he is called The Prince of Stoneware Potters.
The month of issue for this set is so far only listed in my 1950s London Cigarette Card Company catalogues, along with the fact that the set was issued either as a set of twenty-four small cards or a set of twelve extra large cards. However the month would have almost certainly appeared in our Carreras Reference Book, if the plans for that had come to fruition. Perhaps there is a whole list of Carreras dates somewhere, and I will stumble upon it when I start to work through all my magazines to add the information on to our website.
I do know that it would not have been listed as a new issue, because this set was issued in 1926, and the first ever "Cigarette Card News" was only issued in October 1933, a hundred years ago this year - little wonder that the ones I have are looking a little tired.
By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index, only six years after my L.C.C.C. Catalogue, things have changed. This tells us that the cards are embossed (which I hope you can see by the back, if not the front, embossing is quite hard to pick up on a scanner, for some reason - but just in case the embossing is to the figure, to make it stand out), and also numbered. Most importantly there are now three variants. The full listing reads :
OLD STAFFORDSHIRE FIGURES. Embossed. Nd. ... C18-60
1. "A Series of 24". (A) small (B) large
2. "A Series of 12". Cabinet Size
I am not sure of the size of the cabinet cards, so if anyone has one do have a measure, and let us know, please. I am not sure when the large set turned up either, so maybe a Carreras specialist can tell us that too.
This is not the end of the story either, for in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index there has been another shift, which must have turned up in the intervening years, and must be recorded somewhere, yet to find. This now lists the series as
OLD STAFFORDSHIRE FIGURES. Embossed. Nd. ... C151-340
1. A. Sm. (24) B. Cabinet Size (1-12 as 1-12 in A.)
2. Lg (24, different subjects.)