On this page we aim to tell the story of how the hobby developed, and to pay tribute, along the way, to a few of the people who researched, catalogued, and preserved the cards so that we can still collect and learn about them. And do note this is a quick read only - if you want to dig deeper then click the links throughout the text, which lead to other pages, including biographies.
So lets start with...
Cartophilic ?
It is, indeed, a strange word, and it`s probably the first thing you are wondering about.
In actual fact it was a combination of the French word “Carte” (meaning cards) and the Greek word “Philos” (meaning enjoyment or appreciation). And it was coined by his man, Colonel Charles Lane Bagnall, shown here with his daughter, Dorothy.
As for card-lovers themselves, their proper name is "Cartophilists", though there is an amusing variant in a Pathe News Documentary, filmed in 1937, where we are called ‘Cartophilistines’.
How did it all start ?
You can read the story of how cards came about elsewhere. However, in the very beginnings of card collecting, the main way to get them was in person, either directly from a packet, or by asking your friends for them, and swapping. There are quite a few picture postcards like the one we show here, which show amusing scenarios in which people who would rather be left alone are instead being pestered for their cards. However this one was issued by our Reading Branch, to mark our 1990 Card Convention which they hosted.
The first cigarette dealer that we have physical proof of was a Mr. G. A. Johnson of Netherton, Wishaw, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. He issued a four page sales-list of cards in 1916, which, intriguingly, says it is "Number 6", though we have never seen numbers 1 to 5, and do not know when they were issued - unless you have them and can share some information.
There was quite a gap between this dealer and Mr. Bagnall`s "British Cigarette Card Company", which he started in 1927; it was soon renamed though, to "The London Cigarette Card Company", not, as I always thought, because there was another company by that name, but because Mr. Bagnall thought there may be confusion with the British Cigarette Company. Thanks to our research editor, Mr. Thornham for the correction.
The first London Cigarette Card “catalogue of prices” was issued in 1929, and in 1933, they started a magazine called "Cigarette Card News". This is still issued today, though in the intervening years the company has relocated to Somerset, and also changed the name of the magazine to “Card Collectors News”.
The first cigarette card club we have found so far is the Dublin Cigarette Card Club, an independent group which began in 1933. Two years later The Cameric Cigarette Card Club was started, in London, by two former school friends, Derek Campbell Burnett and Arthur Eric Cherry, and their first Annual General Meeting was held on the 8th of October 1938.
The Cartophilic Society was also formed in 1938, and its inaugural meeting was held quite quickly, on the 15th of December of that year, at Anderton’s Hotel, 102-105 Fleet Street in London. The building has since been demolished, but an illustration was unearthed in order to illustrate our Jubilee commemorative card in 1988.
One of the pioneers at this meeting was Charles Glidden Osborne OBE, who would become our first President.
Quite quickly after that, in January 1939, the London Cigarette Card Company offered to share their magazine with us, allowing us four pages until such time that we could run a magazine of our own. We accepted, gladly. The system ran for just five months, until July 1939, when someone stepped forward and gave a donation of fifteen pounds, enough to pay for the printing of "a monthly bulletin" for one year.