Faust was staged at the Lyceum Theatre between December 1885 and 1888, whilst Henry Irving was Actor-Manager. The cast list reveals that Ellen Terry was Margaret (or Marguerite, as shown here), Henry Irving was Mephistopheles, and George Alexander was Faust.
In fact Henry Irving`s Mephistopheles can be seen on two cards issued by John Player, namely “Actors and Actresses” (1898 - card unnumbered) - though as this is a newsletter link you will have to scroll down to Thursday 19th of May - and "Players Past and Present" (1916 - card 1). He actually appears twice in the earlier set, also showing as Ichamo. This is an error, because the name was Iachimo, and he was a character from the Shakespeare play `Cymbeline`
The original written story of Faust was written by Goethe in two parts and the first was published in 1808. The second part was published posthumously in 1832. The opera version was written by Charles Gounod, and made its debut in France in 1859. The story here was an adaptation by William Gorman Wills, and because it was an English version, Ellen Terry was named to be playing Margeret. However this card uses the French version, which could mean whomsoever produced it was going on their knowledge of the book and former play, without keeping up to date with theatreland.
It is recorded in her autobiography that she did learn to spin especially for the part so that she would not look out of place should any handworkers be in the audience. It was also a proper wheel, not a stage prop.
This set appears in our original Taddy reference book (RB.12), published in 1948, in a very curious way, casting doubt as to our title. Maybe "Famous Theatrical Personalities" would have sufficed better? Anyway, the listing reads :
14. 25. FAMOUS ACTORS (11) FAMOUS ACTRESSES (14) (titled). Size 2 5/8" x 1 11/32" or 68 x 36 m/m. Numbered 1-25 on fronts. Fronts lithographed in colour, white margins. Cards Nos. 1, 3, 7-10, 12, 13, 19, 24 and 25 are titled "Famous Actors", other numbers "Famous Actresses". Backs per Fig.10 in blue.
What this omits is that the numbers are on the fronts of the cards. And that the names recorded there are both the actual and character names.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index this is much reduced, to simply :
FAMOUS ACTORS (11) FAMOUS ACTRESSES (14). Sm. Nd. (25). See RB.12/14
The updated version is identical, but the citation to the original Taddy reference book is now omitted.