Card of the Day - 2023-03-29

wills alpine flowers
W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] "Alpine Flowers" (October 1913) 38/50 - W675-094 ? : W62-62 : W/36

Now we have taken a bit of a liberty here by using an Alpine daisy, but the daisy is the birth flower for the month of April. The flower is named after its curious habit of closing its eyes at the end of the day and going to sleep - in less romantic terms, the flower closes up once it starts to get dark and cold. However this blue Alpine version, Aster Alpinus, still does the same, 

So this set first appears in our original Wills Reference Book part 3, where it is coded as W/36 and described as : "50 Alpine Flowers. Fronts lithographed in colour, backs in grey with descriptive text. Home issue 1913." The month of October appears only when the five books were reprinted and published as a hardback. They come from listings in the Wills Works Magazine, which they kindly shared with us. 

In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this has the rather interesting code of W62-62. But all it says is  "Sm. Nd. (50)". This scant breadcrumb also appears in our modern World Tobacco Issues Index but curiously this set is not actually coded in that volume - however it is sited between Allied Army Leaders W675-092 and Arms of Companies W675-096, so I have taken the liberty of taking the middle path and giving it W675-094.