Our final card is this very charming study of a man in a home-made dragon costume. I wondered, at first, whether he was practising for a parade, or just entertaining the village?
After a bit of a search, it turns out that Chinese people in general thought that dragons were lucky, especially in the matter of wealth, which is why they are often depicted with a pearl or coin in their claws. Then I hit the jackpot, because I found out that in rural areas, as on our card, farmers believed that dragons brought the rain, much needed to water their crops. This eventually extended to all manner of weather that was helpful, like being too windy for the birds and insects to fly and attack their crops, or hindersome like storms and gales. Dragons also warded off illnesses, by swirling the germs and bad air away. Therefore, in order to encourage dragons into their area, villagers would perform a dance whilst dressed as a fellow dragon, in a costume made of paper and cloth over a wooden frame. Alternatively, if they were too young, or too old, to do this, they were still encouraged to take part, waving banners with dragons painted on them, or constructing tiny dragon figures out of clay, or even making lots of noise and shining mirrors to the sky to attract the attention of the mighty beast.
Finding out anything about this card at first was impossible, but Mr. Price has emailed in and told me that it was not only issued by the British Cigarette Company in China, but it is listed in RB.21 - our British American Tobacco Reference Book, published in 1951 - under Chinese Grouping "A". The description there is :
525.16 - CHINESE SET 18 - Human Interest Series. Small cards, size 63 x 36 m/m. Front per Fig.525-16, in colour, black framelines, horizontal format. Numbered series of 72.
A. Anonymous issue, with plain back
B. B.C.C. issue, pearl-bordered design, back per. Fig.200-17F in yellow.
Special album issued, entitled "Human Interest Series - A Series of 72" with grey covers.
By the way, that back shown as Fig.200-17F is a full advert back, which says "THESE PICTURES are packed in the BRANDS of Cigarettes of BRITISH CIGARETTE CO. LTD".
Now the B.C.C., or the British Cigarette Company, were based in Shanghai. You can see one of their factories at the University of Bristol`s Historical Photographs of China collection. This was taken in 1931.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index has a small header before the listing of their cards, and that reads :
Known as "B.C.C.". Chinese associate of B.A.T. Includes cards inscribed "The B.C. Co." without full name. Many of the Anonymous Chinese Series under Sets ZE-3, ZE-4 and ZE-5 were issued by them. See also Set B116-48.[which is an advertisement folder]
I thought those Z numbers might tell me whether our anonymous issue was issued by the British Cigarette Co, or if they were just proofs. However after ploughing through those, without any mention of our set, I did actually find it, listed under ZK3-9. And the entry reads
CHINESE HUMAN INTEREST SERIES (A). Sm. 62-64 x 36. Framelines. Chinese captions and numeral in black, white borders. Scenes of everyday life. Nd. (72). See RB.21/525-16.A. Special album issued, titled "Human Interest Series - A Series of 72".