Here we have the wolf, and all domestic breeds of dog are descended from it. How this arose is not known, but we imagine that one day a dog came around to a human settlement looking for food and slowly grew tame enough to consider as a house guest.
Not only that, but the wolf was the first truly international dog, for it is thought that it came from North America and migrated across the then conjoined continents both down to South America and across to Asia. Then, as the lands broke apart, they became marooned and decided to colonise where they had ended up. They have suffered much through the inhumanity of man, but are slowly being re-introduced to wild lands where hopefully they will be allowed to roam in peace.
Stollwerck has one big claim to cartophilic fame and that is that it was the first German company to issue collectable pictures along with its products. This started in 1840, but I have not been able to find out what the first cards were, though I suspect they were advertising rather than the later collectable pictures cards.
I am backed up in this by the fact that in 1860 they started to sell "Bilder und Photographie Shokoladen", which translates to "Picture and Photograph Chocolate". The pictures were actually printed on the wrappers, and were mostly landscapes and portraits.
The albums came along much later, nearer the turn of the twentieth century, and they were a great hit, providing a central base in which to stick your cards and also nagging at you to fill that blank space on any one page. The arrival of the First World War stopped the cards from being printed, and they did not resume until the 1930s. However not long after that the Second World War began and the cards stopped once more.
This set I originally titled as "Fables" because of the little verse on the back. However I have been corrected and given the correct title, for which many thanks. I have also been told that it is a set of six cards, namely :
- Wildsau [wild boar]
- Fuchs [fox]
- Dachs [badger]
- Wolf [wolf]
- Wildkatze [wild cat]
- Luchs [lynx]