The Statue of Liberty is here because she represents New York. And that was not only the home of Alfred Mosher Butts, it was vital to his research for he chose the make up of the tiles for his game, and their values, by counting the letters used on random pages of the New York Times newspaper.
Vowels were obviously used most, so they had the lowest score, just one point, along with letters L,N,S,T, and R. And some letters would sometimes not appear on a page at all, so they became the most valuable scorers - five points being given to "K", eight to "J" and "X", and ten for the least used of all, which were "Q" and "Z". Then there were two blank tiles, so that the game did not reach stalemate too easily - these would allow you to make them any letter you chose, but they would not score you any points at all.
Now this set is one of a larger group, and, at the moment, this is the earliest of those sets here, so it will be given the full description. Later on, when I use set one, it will change.
Lets start our card chat with our British American Tobacco book, the original RB.21, where this set has a slightly different date in the index by firms, of 1926-7, and also a different group title, of "Photographic Views".
In the main body it appears under Section XIII, Group 4 - Guernsey Local Issues, and the text is :
289. PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS. Size 66 x 47 m/m. Fronts matt photoprints, hand coloured. Backs in black, inscribed "This Real Hand-Coloured Photograph is one of a series of ... " with Bucktrout`s name and address at base. Bucktrout issues. Four numbered series, each of 104 subjects.
289.1 Set 1 Titled "Places of Interest." Numbered 1-104
289.2 Set 2 Titled "Around the World" Numbered 105-208
289.3 Set 3 Titled "Around the World" Numbered 209-312
289.4 Set 4 Titled "Around the World" Numbered 313-416
The links, underlined in blue, lead you to the entries for those other parts of the set, which are shown elsewhere on this site.
Now I am not sure why set 1 was titled "Places of Interest", whilst all the rest were titled "Around the World". Some may tell you that this is because that set is purely views of the British Isles, but it is not, there are Foreign sights in there as well.
Another curious thing is that all the cards say, on the reverse, "a series of ....", but they differ in the number - the first set saying "a series of 104", the second "....of 208" etc.
Finally, I also think that having sets of a hundred and four cards is a very odd way of going about things, why not an even hundred?
Anyway our World Tobacco Issues Indexes list this set with a header that tells us that Bucktrout was a Guernsey associate of British American Tobacco through Guernsey Tobacco Co., and that the cards were issued between 1919 and 1929 with brands such as Islanders, Fags, Specials and Clubs, as well as anonymously with wording relating to "Guernsey-made Cigarettes".
The set is described in both as :
AROUND THE WORLD or PLACES OF INTEREST. Md. 66 x 48. Hand-coloured photos. See RB.21/289. Special album issued.
1. Nd. 1/104. Titled "Places of Interest" (104)
2. Nd. 105/208. Titled "Around the World" (104)
3. Nd. 209/312. Titled "Around the World" (104)
4. Nd. 313/416. Titled "Around the World" (104)
The intriguing thing is that on investigation Guernsey Tobacco issued cigarette cards too, in the mid 1930s, these being three of the W.D. & H.O. Wills "A Famous Picture" sectional series ("And When Did You Last See Your Father?", "The Laughing Cavalier" and "The Toast" - but not "Between Two Fires", "Mother and Son" or "The Boyhood of Raleigh") and a set of fifty three miniature playing cards including a joker.