Card of the Day - 2024-02-05

wills sports all nations traveller
W.D. & H.O. Wills [tobacco : UK] “Sports of All Nations” – Traveller back (1900) 38/50 - W675-070E : W62-58E : W/14

So here we have the final clue, and this is a perfect card in so many ways, for it shows China, plus a dragon on the yellow pennant at the bottom, and a kite, which are flown at the New Year as a celebration of new life and also to wave goodbye to the old year.

I am not entirely sure it is a sport, but it is a super image. And it also commemorates the fact that kites were invented in China, starting out as a simple wooden model of a flying bird on the end of a stick which was wiggled to create the illusion of movement. Eventually the bird and the wood disappeared and the structure was made lighter by using bamboo and paper.

More information about the making of this set can be found elsewhere on our site, where we feature another card, but of the "Westward Ho" brand. All the backs are the same basic design, grey, with the only change being the top box in which is the brand, the middle box which describes each of those tobaccoes and the bottom line, where the number of the card only is changed.

Our "Traveller" Tobacco is one of the scarcer of Wills` brands, and most of the memorabilia seems to turn up in the Antipodes, so perhaps it was an export one. This is also supported by the final line of the little cartouche in the middle of the reverse, where it is described as "A bright straight cut flaked tobacco sweetened. Manufactured in Bond" - for a "Bonded" warehouse is one which stores goods that have been imported or are to be exported.

As far as the rest of the cartouche, and on the original tins of tobacco, where it was described as "Golden Flaked Cavendish", the `flake` refers to the way that it was made, pressed into a large block and kept there for several weeks to mature. After that was is cut into flakes, or slices, and these are then separated. The `Cavendish` is the tobacco itself, and it is a dark blend, which is often mixed with a lighter tobacco, usually Virginia - and though it is nowhere mentioned that this was a blended tobacco, it is also supported by the card calling it "bright".