So here for our third clue of the week we have another very important man in Ellen Terry`s life, John Henry Brodribb, better known as Henry Irving.
In 1878, aged thirty, she had joined his theatrical company as their leading lady. The company was primarily based at the Lyceum Theatre, but it also toured - even to America.
This card was issued in 1911, some years after she had taken her American debut in 1883, in a non-Shakespearean play, for she was Queen Henrietta in the play "Charles I". Mr. Irving played Charles I. However she did also get to play Shakespeare on the tour, including two of what would be her most famous portrayals, Portia in the Merchant of Venice, and Ophelia in Hamlet, which she had a fondness for, as it had been the first role she had done with Mr. Irving in 1878.
There is little evidence today that the two were ever more than friends, though she did reportedly say that they were after he died and could no longer confirm or deny. Maybe she hoped they were. She was definitely close to him though, and both separated from their significant others just a few years after they met.
This card does not say American Tobacco, but it cites "Between The Acts" Little Cigars, which is a most appropriate brand for this theatrical set. You can fin it with several addresses at the base, F.493 Md, F.593 Md, (both Maryland) and F.649 NY (which is New York).
Although not named we call the set "Actors", and it is described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
ACTORS (A). Lg. 77 x 61. Gold embossed framework, black border. Unnd. (50). "Between The Acts" brand issue. See ABC/T.25. Ref USA/T.25
The updated version says the same at first but closes not with the American Book of Checklists. Instead it says "F.493, 549, 593 and 649. Ref USA/T.25"