This card gave us a baby having a "wail", which links us to the whale, the largest of all aquatic life - with the Antactic Blue Whale measuring almost a hundred feet long and weighing in at up to ninety metric tons.
There is also a non-aquatic animal here too, the cat that licks the spilt milk.
If you look at the reference books, you will read that this set is one of only two that were issued by this company, the full details of which, and whom, appear at its home page, our Card of the Day for the 24th of April, 2024.
In addition, it seems to be universally regarded that our set was an export issue. And though I have not yet found out to where they were exported, I hope to one day be able to prove that this was to South Africa, for that would tie in extremely nicely with the fact that Bocnal segued into becoming the Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation (South Africa) Ltd., Johannesburg, and then into the Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation, Luton, (the home page for both these being with our Card of the Day for the 25th of September, 2024.)
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index, issued in 1956, lists our set as simply ;
- PROVERBS UP TO DATE. Sm. 67 x 36. Nd. (25) ... B80.2
And this remains the same in our updated volume, save a new card code, of B502-300.
I also have a "New Issues Report" for this set, from The London Cigarette Card Company magazine "Cigarette Card News", copy dated August 1938. This reads :
"Proverbs". Twenty-five small cards. Coloured cards depicting well known proverbs, rather crudely produced."
They are art drawn, and I think not crudely at all, rather well, in fact - yet they have neither monogram, nor name, for the artist.
It is an unusual set though, and is seldom included in thematic collections, despite the fact that there are cards of a cat (on our card), a frog and pelican ("Look before you Leap"), a bull ("He who Hesitates is Lost"), and a bulldog ("Let sleeping dogs Lie") - plus a policeman "No Smoke without Fire"), chefs ("Too many Cooks spoil the Broth"), and a kilted Scotsman ("Never look a gift horse in the mouth")