Here we have something that celebrates things which are quite high up the list of things that other countries think of when they think of our National Identity - these being our history, our pageantry, and our Royalty, And Windsor Castle seems to be more loved and recognised overseas than does Buckingham Palace.
To start with our history, yes we do appear to have a longer story than most other countries, and our country is dotted with structures of ancient origin. However, all land masses were created at about the same time. along with all the different groups of first humans. The sad truth is that when one country colonised/invaded another and we were no different, the new arrivals cared not for preserving the past of the original inhabitants, destroying their structures, and casting their stories aside.
As for pageantry, well even if you are not a Royalist, you cannot fail but be stirred by the sight of our massed armies in ceremonial dress, at such events as the Trooping of the Colour, and the Changing of the Guard, They are impressive, and designed to be so, for they were a civil way of demonstrating a military might, just like the Eastern European parades of yore. They might be spectacular, but they also say look here, this is what we have at our disposal, should you invade.
Royalty might be seen as outdated now, and the movement to democracy the way forward. But like the pageantry, there is something to having a strong figurehead. I am unsure whether, or not, it would have been better if they had remained convinced that they were serving under Divine Right. However I also think that once the single Royal became the Royal Family, everything changed simply because one person can manage to keep themselves away from the spotlight, but having too many of them is too hard to protect, or control.
Now this is a curious set indeed, and though it is at the back of the book in both our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, both clearly state that it was by Moustafa, The company themselves are elusive, though I am told by several collectors that their name was a play on words, because "Mustafa" means "The Chosen One" in Turkish.
According to our Directory of British Cigarette Card Issuers, RB.7, published in 1946, Moustafa & Co. was founded about 1886. Then it says that they were formerly at 112, Commercial Street, London, E., after which they "associated" with W. J. Harris & Son, Ltd. and became Moustafa Ltd. of 82 Commercial Road, London, E. - however the entry in the same book for Harris says that their old address was 84 Commercial Road, and their present address (in 1946) is 112 Commercial Street. Will have to research that.
In any event, Harris joined the United Kingdom Tobacco Alliance in 1905, along with Cavanders and Major Drapkin, and then were taken over by Godfrey Phillips in 1909. When that happened, Godfrey Phillips also got what are described as "the assets" of Moustafa. Something else to research.
As far as the cartophilic output of Moustafa, that was well after Godfrey Phillips had acquired them, in the mid 1920s. Three sets were issued with the Moustafa name, these being :
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"Camera Studies" (50 - 1923)
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"Leo Chambers Dogs Heads" (40 - 1924)- and
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"Real Photos" (25 - 1925) -
plus another three which were issued without the name, these being
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"Hand Coloured Pictures of Movie Stars" (25 - 1924 - which seems to appear in catalogues as simply "Cinema Stars" And by the way this link goes to a newsletter, so you will need to work down the page a bit),
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our set "Hand-Coloured Pictures of World Interest" (25 - 1923 - which again you will most likely find listed as "Pictures of World Interest") - and
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another set of "Camera Studies" (50 - 1923) which was identical to the "Moustafa" branded set listed above but stated in the World Indexes to be "without any of the captions or numbers". However, what they actually meant was that it had a plain back.
This set appears in both our World Tobacco Issues Indexes under "Anonymous Issues (1) with letterpress on back - 2. English Language Issues - without reference to tobacco." Their set description is the same in both, namely :
HAND-COLOURED PICTURES OF WORLD INTEREST. Sm. 63 x 35. Hand-coloured brown gravures. Nd. (25) Issued by Moustafa.
And before I close, you are right, this is not a real photograph. But it is the sort of "photo" that would have appeared in newspapers of the time. In fact the gravure fell out of favour because if you looked at the image very closely the edges were not entirely straight, and this was seen as a disadvantage when compared to other printing methods.
However, in these modern times, we seem to have come full circle, for most magazines and papers use various electronic and digital means of production, and we have ended up accepting a very similar result all over again, without complaint.