This card is not a card, it is a silk, and the wording appears on a paper backing which, it is said, is easily removed by loosening it at the corner and peeling it back, slightly wetting if it does not come away freely. After that you have a piece of silk which may be used to decorate home furnishings and clothing - or, as the backing paper suggests, “table centres, cushion covers, quilts, and other decorative articles for home ornamentation”. And you will also find several other silk humming birds amidst Godfrey Phillips 1921 set of "Birds", displaying their finery and beautiful colours to good advantage.
The text also tells us that Morris had been “established over 100 years”.
Sadly, our bird is only named "Humming Bird (Peru)" - and in Peru there are a hundred and twenty eight species. So I am afraid that I have not had time to give this little specimen a more appropriate name. If we have any ornithologists, or it rains all weekend and you get very bored, I welcome your assistance in the identifying game!
We know that humming birds were important to the native people, because there is one recorded as part of what we call the Nazca Lines, but which are more accurately called the Nazca Geoglyphs. These are a series of diagrams, added to the surface of the Earth between 200 BC and 500 AD, and they very accurately inscribe many hundreds of objects and animals. Their humming bird has a long straight beak, plus an intricate tail and wings, and it measures 320 feet long and 216 feet wide. The most curious fact, though, is that these objects only make a picture when viewed from some distance above. Today, we see them by way of an aeroplane, which does not explain how their makers created them so accurately. Of course, there are some who claim that they were in some way influenced, or created, by aliens. And until we have other proof, this could easily be considered to be the truth.
Now in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, this set is described amongst the other Morris paper-backed silks, of which there are three main sets. The entry for our set reads
ENGLISH & FOREIGN BIRDS. Md. 78 x 56. Nd. on backing. (25). See Ha.505-1. ... M142-15
The only difference to this in our updated volume is the fact that there is a new handbook code, H.505-1, and, new card code, of M884-240.
Once more the old London Cigarette Card Company Handbook came up trumps, for it reads :
Ha.505-1. ENGLISH & FOREIGN BIRDS - 1 (titled series). Medium paper-backed silks, size 3 1/2" x 2 1/4" (78 x 56 m/m). Front illustrated at No.1 in Fig.505, no letterpress. Paper backing printed in blue, with number, caption, and instructions for removing silk. Numbered series of 25. Numbered on paper backing, silk unnumbered. Issued by B. Morris
At the time this was published (1955) the silks were offered for sale at 1/6 each or 50/- a complete set.
By the way, I have now found it in our updated version of the Handbook, with exactly the same text, but not the imperial measurements, only the millimetres. On which note, silks are subject to variation; sometimes the edges can get a bit frayed and, quite innocently, a collector of olden times might have trimmed them off. Today, some sellers do it because they think it looks better, and will increase the appeal, or the value. However, a silk specialist always checks the size - and always has, for the measurements of silks have been considered vital enough to include in catalogues and handbooks right from the very first ones.