Lots of gaps to fill in with this one, so do help if you can.
Now it first appears at the back of in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, as part of a group, which is catalogued as :
SPORTING FIGURES (A). Sm., serrated top and bottom. Woven in colour on black material See X50/13.
1. Size 50-55 x 40. Nd. CA 1 – CA-26 (26). Even numbers with red, odd numbers with blue backgrounds.
2. Size 45 x 30. No. B 8 seen
However in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index it is alone, and the text slightly altered, to :
SPORTING FIGURES I (A). Sm. 50-55 x 40. Serrated top and bottom. Woven in colour on black material. Nd. CA1 – CA25 (25), representing letters of the alphabet, omitting “I”. Even numbers with red, odd numbers with blue backgrounds. Additional numbers to 29, with face masks in lavender and/or silver on black background, have also been seen.
So the first question has to be regarding the number in the set, which started as twenty-six and was then reduced to twenty-five. And what happened to the “I”? Excluding that “I” is somewhat odd, it being a vowel; most people, given the choice, would choose to lose the “J”, which looks similar but has much less usage - though some people counter that the “J” is a more important capital letter, if these silks were intended to be sewn on to form names.
Secondly, who issued these? One name that has been attached to them is the Turkish-Macedonian Tobacco Company, or “Turmac”. They were based in Holland, with branches in Constantinople, Cavalla, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, London and Paris. And yet nobody has tied this set to them yet.
If you look about where the set appears in the updated World Tobacco Issues Index there seems to be another contender, and that is Kiazim Emin. This company does not appear in the original World Tobacco Issues Index, but they were based in Amsterdam too, and most tellingly, the other set, originally grouped with our one, has become separately listed, as :
SPORTING FIGURES II (A). Sm. 75 x 51. No scenery background. Similar in style to ZS04-740, three colours only. Unnd. (5 seen). Probably issued by Kiazim Emin.
By the way ZS04-740 is catalogued as :
SPORT AND NATURE SERIES (A). Sm. 70-75 x 50, serrated top and bottom. Many nature subjects are also found in a smaller size 65 x 51. Woven in colour on black material. Without captions. Unnd (126 - 55 sport and scouting, 37 animals 34 flowers). Issued by Kiazim Emin. Special album issued, entitled “Sport en Natuur”.
That seems to make them front runners for the issuer