So today`s card has been chosen because it celebrates several things connected with our National Identity.
Firstly our beautiful green countryside, immortalised forever as the final lines of William Blake`s "Jerusalem" as "England`s Green and Pleasant Land", but which, sadly, is fast disappearing . Now despite William Blake being so integral to the English countryside, he only appears to have been immortalised on one cigarette card, the Topps / Allen & Ginter`s 2014 set called "Where Nature Ends" - he is card 25/.26 . I am not quite sure how Allen & Ginter became involved with Topps, so if anyone can enlighten me, please do.
Secondly, there is a beautiful, and wistful country girl, unspoilt, and natural. and for many, even now, the ideal woman. Country girls, like the one shown here, would have had a hard life, for sure, with little education or career, and yet I must wonder was she as unhappy, or disappointed with her lot, as many young girls are today with far more money and amazing jobs?
Then thirdly, the back of the card mentions England`s National Flower, the rose, and women are sometimes referred to as English Roses - most famously Princess Diana, in the song written as her memorial by Sir Elton John. Though roses have long been associated with romance, it only became the symbol of England in Tudor times, when the white rose which represented Elizabeth of York`s House of York, and the red rose for Henry Tudor (Henry VII)`s House of Lancaster, were united, on their marriage in 1486.
Now if you look closely at this card there is a hidden secret, for there are two men here. If you look behind the man gazing at the country girl there is a horse, and he is drawing a cart with an older male driver on it. You can see his head just above the more visible man`s head, and slightly to the right as viewed.
This is another version of the set with the blue back that we featured two days ago - which is why A. below is bold and will send you there if you click on it. Our original World Tobacco Issues Index catalogues this group of sets as :
THE HOMELAND SERIES. Nd. See Ha. 539.
a) Small. All hand-coloured
A. Back in blue. (50)
B. Back in black. Glossy or semi-glossy front. (50).
C. Back in black. Matt front. (54) and varieties
(b) Medium size. All hand-coloured except G.
D. Back inscribed "Hand Coloured Real Photos". (50)
E. As (D), inscribed "Reprinted at the ...." (56)
F. As (D), words "Hand-Coloured" dropped (56)
G. As (F), words "Real Photos" centred under series title (56)