Here we have the birth of the delight of camping for many boys and girls, and it also sorts out those who will never want to do it again, those who will always flock together with other campers for the fun and revelry, and those who are happy to sleep all alone in a muddy field with no companions and probably no "amenities" either....and it is from this last group that most explorers come.
The idea of this set is that the scene has vertical lines across it in certain places. These lines are numbered, and if you look at the little figures too you will see they also have numbers. Then it gets to the difficult bit, for you have to incise the lines (without incising anything else) and cut neatly round the little figures, and slot the numbered base into the numbered line. You will also see a dotted line part way down the picture, and that is a fold line, which enables the printed scene, here of the tents, to act as a backdrop for the cut out figures.
I have to say that most of these cards were probably ruined during the effort at making them work, and just discarded. I seriously doubt anyone attempted to make "Le Train du Far West", which not only involves cutting out a train and several carriages as one shape, but then bending this curvaceously round to make an arc. And this is backed up by the fact that the train is the card you are way more likely to find. But saying this, we must give thanks to the children who knew, instantly, that doing any of this was not for them, and left their cards untouched for us to enjoy today.
At first I thought this was one card in a set devoted to camping, but it turns out that it is all kinds of scenes, so I have changed the title. I do not know the actual title, yet, but what I have will suffice for now. Finding this out also led to another discovery, that the set was issued several times, as you can find cards with several pictorial backs, and also non-pictorial, text only, ones.
There are also other types, much more brightly coloured; most of these just cut out to make a model, but I have seen one of these which is a hybrid; half of the card shows a cowboy and a very Bonzo like dog at a picnic, and the other is to be removed and cut out, that has a lion, a cactus, and a palm tree, which fit in slots on the top picture.
However for now I will only deal with the cards in our style, of which the ones I know so far are :
- "Haute Couture" - six cut outs, two models, a designer, a fitter with a dress, seated women, and the runway
- "Le Camp Scout" - seven cut outs, a tent, five tabs of uniformed boy scouts, and an almost unclothed boy with a bow
- "Le Coin des Poupees" - eight cut outs, a child and doll, a ball, a teddy, a doll on its back, a baby, a pram, a wardrobe, and a playpen.
- "Le Train du Far West" - six cut outs, a long train, a tree, a cactus, two Native Americans, and a tepee.
- "Savoie" - two cut outs, a pair of skiers and one who has fallen [Savoie is a region in the French Alps, famed for skiing]
- "Sur L`Aerodrome" - five cut outs, an aeroplane, a luggage trolley, a car, passengers, and a set of runway stairs.
- "Tout le Monde au Travail" - six cut outs showing people at work
If anyone can add to this, please do. I did think it closed at six, but then I saw the final one online, albeit rather too small to make out what the figures were doing.