Another fiendish clue, though perhaps the bird, bottom left of the reverse could have given you a hint.
This card was chosen because it was issued in Ecuador, which holds the world record for the highest number of humming birds within one country, irrespective of species.
So here we have Sarah Bernhardt. She was born Henriette-Rosine Bernard, on October 1844, to a mother who seems not to have wanted her, she travelled and the child was an impedance, so she left her with a nurse and then sent her off to boarding school. The name of her father was not recorded, but today we think it was either a lawyer or an attorney, and, curiously, he wanted to be involved with her life, paying for her education, even for the boarding school, insisting that she go to church and be baptized, and even leaving her a little next egg, to be cultivated so that it could grown until she was of an age to use it wisely. He probably would have adopted her, given the chance, but for some reason he was not.
She was told that her father had died, in 1857. And we are not entirely sure if this is true.
She became a stage actress, and a very famous one, with the most popular playwrights so eager to feature her that they wrote works specially to appeal to her. She was equally adept at male and female roles, and had a wonderful voice, which allowed her to make sound recordings, and her fame also gave her the chance to make motion pictures, though she was quite aged then. However at the start of her acting career there was quite a scandal, when she attended a ball and made the acquaintance of a Belgian prince. A few months later she found out she was pregnant. At that time she was back living with her mother, who threw her out, so she found lodgings elsewhere and kept the child, Maurice. He was to be her only child, but, just like her mother, she did not want to have anything to do with the father, even though he frequently proposed marriage, despite his parents being opposed to such. He even offered to give up his title, but she was adamant and in the end he gave up, though it wounded him and he refused to ever accept any responsibility for the son he had made.
She returned to the theatre and toured the world, going to America in 1880. After a brief return to Paris, she kept touring. In 1886 she went back to America but this time to the south, Brazil, Argentina, etc. The tour lasted almost two years, and we know that she did visit Ecuador, to go crocodile hunting, at Guayaquil, where this card originates. Maybe it was issued a little earlier than we suspect?
After that she returned to France and bought what would be her final home, only leaving it when she ran out of money - something which was often the result of her son, who had become an inveterate gambler.
The picture on this card shows her as Melissande in "La Princesse Lointaine" by the by the virtually unknown poet Edmond Rostand. This was first performed in April 1895, and she played the lead. It was not a great success but she grew very friendly with the writer, and he wrote several other plays for her. The title of our play is an odd one, for it does not mean a Princess by the name of Lointaine, it means a Princess far away, or, more properly, sadly out of reach, through fame, or birth, or class. Perhaps this is a bit of a clue to how he felt about the actress, though he was married, to a fellow poet, and they had two sons. Sadly he died in 1918, in the terrible influenza epidemic that swept in after the First World War.
For all her fame, Sarah Bernhardt was plagued with ill health at the end of her life. In 1906 she had been injured during a theatrical performance where she leapt from a balcony on to a hidden mattress, and this had been wrongly placed. By 1914 it was causing her much trouble, both internally and externally, and in 1915 almost the entire leg was removed due to gangrene and infection. Then, on the 26th of March 1923, she died, technically of kidney failure. She wass buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
This is an unusual set and there are lots of gaps to fill in about it, maybe you can help?
First off, a lot of collectors file it under "M" for Marina, but that was the brand name. In our original World Tobacco Issues Index it is under "Lynch", and the full listing, since this was the only set issued by the company, reads :
La Marina - Gran Fabrica de Cigarillos Carlos C. LYNCH, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Spanish language issue, period 1900-1910. Proofs only seen.ACTRESSES (A). Sm. 46 x 33. Blue green tinted. Unnd. (100) ... L76-1
I have already been told that all 100 appear as part of the Jefferson Burdick collection at the New York Public Library but that they are slightly different, having lighter borders and also if you look very closely they have dotted lines around some of the edges which points to them having been cut from a sheet, perhaps even a proof sheet, because, remember, above it says "Proofs only seen". So did Mr. Burdick have that sheet, and send notice of it to Mr. Wharton-Tigar, who compiled the above description, and then either cut it into cards himself to make storage easier, or cut it subsequently so that it would be easier for the New York Public Library to handle and store?
Now if we go forward to our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, published in the year 2000, forty-four years on, a bit more information has come to light, along with some more sets. Again I will insert the whole section.
La Marina - Gran Fabrica de Cigarillos Carlos C. LYNCH, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Spanish language issue, period 1900-1910. Proofs only seen. Includes brand issue inscribed "La Marina"ACTRESSES (A). Sm. 46 x 33. Blue green tinted. Unnd. (192 seen) ... L970-050
BULLFIGHTERS (A) Sm. 68 x 45. Unnd. Plain back. ... L970-100
1. Black on cream, black border. Unnd (42 seen)
2. Coloured. elaborate framework in yellow. (8 seen)COMIC SCENES (A). Min 43 x 29. Spanish numbering (?36) ...L970-150
SCENES WITH GIRLS (A). Min about 44 x 33. Spanish numbering ... L970-750
1. "Capricho Venidoso" (19)
2. "Descanso Nocturno" (18)
3. "Despues del Balle" (15)
4. "El Sueno de una Soltera" (15)
5. "Le Gusto a Vd?" (12)
6. "Primer Cigarro". (10)
7. "Ultimo Cigarro" (10)