Our second clue was the material from which this was made, for though this beautiful butterfly was actually printed on Satin, it still counts in cartophilic terminology as a "silk". And silk has a huge connection to Derbyshire, because it started the Industrial Revolution. This came about when a man called John Lombe went over to Italy to see why the Italian silk industry was so successful, and whether we would be able to copy it. And it turned out that we could, by harnessing the water power of the Derby area to drive the mills in which our silk was made. And thus changed everything, for Richard Arkwright used a very similar system to produce cotton.
This set is described in our Wills reference book, part IV, (RB.16, issued in 1950) as :
AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES. Medium cards, size 70 x 51 m/m. Fronts printed on satin in colour. Backs on thin board, printed in black with descriptive text and instructions for removing satin, inscribed "Wills` World Renowned Cigarettes"; some variation in colour of board, which varies from pink to pinkish buff. Australian issue, between 1910-18
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index lists these under Wills section 3 [Australian Issues] and sub section 3.B [paper-backed silks]. Now the header for this section tells us they were issued between 1911 and 1917, and reminds us that "When detached from their backings, all silks are anonymous". The actual listing for our set is "AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES. Md. 70 x 48. Nd. (50)." By the time of our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, whilst this text remains the same, the section has been moved to 4.B, simply to accommodate the more modern Wills issues that came via Embassy, etc, in the 1980s.