There is a little debate over the date of this set, some people believing that this standard sized set came first, in June 1926, with the larger sized one coming in April 1927 - some saying it was the other way around (which is the way that the 1950 London Cigarette Card Catalogue shows it), and others that both the sizes were issued in April 1927. Sadly there were no card collecting magazines issued at that time, so we cannot even work it out from "New Issues Reports". But I will keep digging and if I find out the standard size was not an April issue all I have to do is swop this card and write up with the one that originally appeared as a Card of the Day on the 8th of March, 2023, because neither is specific to the subject.
This card from the set was chosen because it intrigues me, in respect of the small head top right. The text, which speaks of this particular line on the hand, tells us that "If the Line of Fate starts from well over on the outside of the palm the owner will be brave and fond of wandering, spending his life in the interests of discovery in foreign lands." For I have a suspicion that this head is that of Robert Falcon Scott, in his balaclava, and it certainly looks like his nose. Now his expeditions to Antarctica took place between 1901 - 1904 and 1910 - 13, and he died in 1912, which seems to point to these cards being in production before the First World War, and then shelved until cards resumed.
That is backed up by the fact that a correspondent of mine swears that card 2 shows Rear Admiral David Beatty, with his cap, as always, set at a jaunty angle, enhanced further by the tilting of his head - who, in 1913 was made Commander of the British Battlecruiser Squadron. The card even says that the owner of "A clear line of fate ... is a born leader of men - one, who, by strong personality, may rise to a position of high authority"
Both sizes appear together in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, where they are catalogued as :
- PALMISTRY. Size (a) small (b) large. Nd. (25) ... D64.33
In our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, all is the same, save the card code, which is now altered to :
- PALMISTRY. Size (a) small (b) large. Nd. (25) ... D800-725