Now this card takes us back to the origins of Christmas music, many centuries ago. For though it is known that at midwinter people got together and feasted and songs were sung, and it is presumed that those in the religious communities would listen and perhaps even ask why they could not have something else to sing.
The first semi-religious songs are believed to have been written by the Franciscans, in the fourteenth century.
And later it would go the other way, with secular words added to religious tunes - a good example of this is "O Come All Ye Faithful", a mid-seventeenth century carol, but which, in its original holy version, was in Latin.
Now why we have Worcester Cathedral is simply that it is the only card I have. But it turns out that there has been a choir at this Cathedral for at least a millennium, and has taken part in the renowned Three Choirs Festival since the eighteenth century. Not only that but in 2024 they are hosting that very festival at the end of July and the beginning of August. They are also the only cathedral to have a Voluntary Choir, as well as being the first one to have a purpose built bell ringing training facility.
This set is first described in the new issues column of "Cigarette Card News", Number 3, Volume 1, dated December 1933. At that time the column was called "Notes on Current Series", and it was written by C. L. Porter, who lists it as :
Wills. Cathedrals. Series of 25 large cards. I think this is the finest set I have seen for a very long time. The fine architecture of the originals is faithfully reproduced, and beautiful colouring makes them absolute works of art. Not many about yet.
It next appears, ten years after, in our reference book to W.D. & H.O. Wills, part IV. This is a more technical description, being :
164. 25. CATHEDRALS. Large cards, size 79 x 62 m/m. Fronts printed by letterpress in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1933
In our World Tobacco Issues Indexes this has been rather drastically shortened to "CATHEDRALS. Lg. Nd. (25)"
Personally these very olde-worlde views of Cathedrals are very reminiscent of those Osbornes that were created, at first, by Arthur Osborne of Faversham, and became so popular that they even had a stand at the Wembley Exhibition. To nudge your memory, these items were three dimensional creamy-coloured plaques showing famous buildings or scenes, which were made of a substance called Ivorex, which was technically plaster of Paris, moulded in a clay or later plasticine mould , then painted in water colour and sealed with an application or two of wax. You can see them at pretty much any online auction by searching for Ivorex. There were over eight hundred different subjects produced, and they were later made by a company called Bossons, who are more known for the three dimensional human heads that used to hang, very oddly, out of living room walls.
However these are definitely not pure reproductions of those because the pencil strokes are clear to see especially along the framelines. But they may well have been inspired by them. And I have found no mention of any artist, yet . So if anyone recognises the work, please do tell, even if it is a hunch, for sometimes such things lead to spectacular discoveries.
Now I should say the "grey" given as the back colour is actually rather greenish and also very light, so this picture has had a little tinkering.