This is an extraordinarily stylised picture of a hummingbird, but we must sit and think, and if we do we can only come to the conclusion that it would have been almost impossible for an artist to capture a hummingbird in its breathtakingly rapid flight - and if they drew from a deceased species, all of its former life, colour, and animation would be missing.
No wonder that this bird looks rather odd.
What else is odd is that this set originally appears in our original British American Tobacco reference book, or RB.21, as a footnote of a set it really has nothing to do with. That entry reads
324, BIRD SERIES or GAME BIRD SERIES. Small cards, size 68 x 38 m/m. Front in colour, fancy frames, different on each picture. Back with descriptive text. Series of 30.
A. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back. Burdick C.45. Titled "Bird Series". Back in blue, inscribed at base "Series of 30". Numbered.
B. I.T.C. of Canada issue. Serial 9864. Burdick C.14. Titled "Game Birds Series". Back in green, inscribed at top "Series of 30". Numbered, in different order from A.
C. U.S.A. 20th Century issue. Burdick T.43. Titled "Bird Series". Back in black, inscribed "Mecca Cigarettes". Factory number at base. Unnumbered, listed in American Book of Checklists.
Note - A further "Bird Series" of 100 subjects, different from the above, is recorded in Burdick T-42
Before I speed on, you can see the listing for this other set under another Card of the Day, for the 26th of November, 2024.
If we look at the Jefferson Burdick descriptions of our sets, under T.42, it reads are :
T.42 - Bird Series (100).
Type 1 - white border (50). Type 2 - gold border (50). Mecca, Sw.Caporal, Cycle, Emblem, Sovereign, Old Mill, Am.Beauty, Piedmont.
He only valued them at five cents a card though.
In our original World Tobacco Issues Index, the "Mecca" Set actually comes under American Tobacco Group Issues, where lots of other brand issues also appear. That reads :
BIRD SERIES - BURDICK T.42. Sm. 66 x 36. Unnd. Series of 100, half with white, half with gold borders. Brand issues, some brands with white or gold borders only. See ABC/T.42. Ref. USA/T.42 ... A54-26
A. "American Beauty". White borders only known. (50)
B. "Cycle". Gold borders only known (50)
C. "Emblem". White borders only known (50)
D. "Mecca". White and gold borders (100)
E. "Old Mill". White and gold borders (100)
F. "Piedmont". White and gold borders (100)
G. "Sovereign". White borders only known (50)
H. "Sweet Caporal". White and gold borders known (100).
The only change to this listing in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index is the addition of the Factory codes, our set, "D" now being out of F.30 and 649, set "F" adding "Gold only F.25, 42 altered to 25, and 42", and "H" adding F25 and 42. We know the location of these factories, too -
- F.25 - 2nd District, Richmond, Virginia
- F.30 - 2nd District, New York City
- F.42 - Liggett & Myers Factory, in Durham, North Carolina
- F.649 - 1st District, New York