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, and it is actually true that the cards are titled differently according to which sex is on the front. Some collectors think that is actually two sets, but they are not numbered in such a way to make that possible, as you will see from our list. There is also a suggestion that another title, for the cards do not have one, might have been intended, and better, but whatever that is was never recorded - however if you imagine that as something like "Famous Theatrical Personalities" it would have explained why the actors and the actresses were so titled.
Anyway, the listing in that book 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.
As this is an actress, we will list them here, and at some time use an actor and repeat the procedure :
- 2. Miss Ellen Terry as "Marguerite" in Faust.
- 4. Miss Marie Tempest in "Dorothy"
- 5. Miss Ellaline Terriss in "Quality Street"
- 6. Miss Evie Green in "A Country Girl"
- 11. Mrs. Patrick Campbell in "The Second Mrs Tanqueray"
- 14. Mrs. Langtry in "The Degenerates"
- 15. Miss Mabel Love in "Sweet and Twenty"
- 16. Mrs. Brown Potter in the "Three Musketeers"
- 17. Miss Julia Neilson in "Sweet Nell of Old Drury"
- 18. Miss Violet Vanbrugh in "Whitewashing Julia"
- 20. Miss Lena Ashwell in "Dante"
- 21. Miss Evelyn Millard in "The Adventures of Lady Ursula"
- 22. Miss Eva Moore in "The Wilderness"
- 23. Mrs. Kendal in "The Elder Miss Blossom"