This is such a lovely card, though the shuttlecock looks rather an alarmingly large size, and is also facing straight down, which, earlier in the week, is something we learned it did not do.
Now this card, despite the set claiming to tell of the Origin of Games, seems to rather carelessly omit any reference to Tibet or China, and starts straight in with “Badminton, first played in England in 1873, has a curious history.” It then goes on to talk about a guest at Badminton House designing the game and calling it after the Duke of Beaufort`s residence in Gloucestershire. However I will take this in the light that the actual name “Badminton” was indeed invented in honour of this country estate – even though the text continues that “The game became widely popular in India”, which still has a kind of air of `after we invented it`.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index the listing of this set reads :
ORIGIN OF GAMES. Nd. (15)
A. Small. 68 x 35
B. Large. 77 x 63
The updated version shortens it still further, to :
ORIGIN OF GAMES. Nd. (15)
A. Sm. 68 x 35 B. Lg. 77 x 63
I am unsure why there was only fifteen cards in this set. Does anyone know?
By the way, there is a checklist, and lots of other information, over at PreWarCards/SaronyOG