players cigarette cards
Thread Starter
players cigarette cards
Gents......I have a full set of John Player RAF cigarette cards that need to go to a good home. I'm moving house and having a clear out but I can't bring myself to bin them......so if anyone is interested please pm me and they're yours f.o.c.
I know this isn't exchange and mart or swap shop, so if I'm infringing any rules, please delete and accept my apologies.
Best
MD
I know this isn't exchange and mart or swap shop, so if I'm infringing any rules, please delete and accept my apologies.
Best
MD
These cards came from the period when Players sold rather nice albums to stick the cards in. The cards were adhesive and the writing on the back was repeated in the album beside the printed frame where you stuck the cards.
Cigarette card collectors are odd people and wont touch cards which have been stuck into the album, but I always thought they were rather nice, with good artwork, so I used to sell them to people who were interested in aircraft (or cars, trains, etc) who weren't so fussy. Not a lot of money, less than a tenner, unless they've rocketed in the last 5 years since I got out of the game
Cigarette card collectors are odd people and wont touch cards which have been stuck into the album, but I always thought they were rather nice, with good artwork, so I used to sell them to people who were interested in aircraft (or cars, trains, etc) who weren't so fussy. Not a lot of money, less than a tenner, unless they've rocketed in the last 5 years since I got out of the game
Quite possibly. I once sold a set of "Famous Authors" cards to an old chap. He commented on one card which showed Somerset Maugham and said that he had once met him. I asked him if he was an author himself and he said yes, but he doubted if I would have heard of any of his books. It was only some time later that I saw a photo of William Golding and realised that I had sold cards to a Nobel Prize winner!
I inherited this rather dilapidated album, containing a full set of cards, from my late father who had pricked out the outline of the Hurricane on the front cover, presumably to copy it.
The album has extraordinary provenance because my father won the Second World War. The Air Ministry posted him to India shortly after he joined the RAF and the Japanese surrendered three days after his arrival. However, they kept him out there for another 18 months just to make sure.
The album has extraordinary provenance because my father won the Second World War. The Air Ministry posted him to India shortly after he joined the RAF and the Japanese surrendered three days after his arrival. However, they kept him out there for another 18 months just to make sure.
FODplod
I have the same set, purchased from a small shop that could survive on selling cigarette cards and stamps to children in the 50's. I had never noticed, until your post prompted me, that though a Players set it is housed in a Wills album. Same cost (one penny!) but with apertures in which the cards could be mounted so that both the front and the rear (and hence the descriptions) of the cards could be viewed. I guess (following from TTN's comments) that the original collector had a view to future value by avoiding the sticking in process required by a Players album.
Amazing collection of biplanes, with the few monoplanes (including Spitfire and Hurricane) often hedged with 'performance withheld' type comments!
I have the same set, purchased from a small shop that could survive on selling cigarette cards and stamps to children in the 50's. I had never noticed, until your post prompted me, that though a Players set it is housed in a Wills album. Same cost (one penny!) but with apertures in which the cards could be mounted so that both the front and the rear (and hence the descriptions) of the cards could be viewed. I guess (following from TTN's comments) that the original collector had a view to future value by avoiding the sticking in process required by a Players album.
Amazing collection of biplanes, with the few monoplanes (including Spitfire and Hurricane) often hedged with 'performance withheld' type comments!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 5th Mar 2016 at 10:07.
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You didn't actually have to collect any of these cards, if you wrote off to Hornimans, Brooke Bond or whoever was doing a particular card promotion they would send you a complete set and album for about two bob. 'While stocks last' was the usual phrase so you had to be sharp.
RAF Squadron Badges
I also have an identical set of RAF Squadron badges displayed in a purpose-designed cigarette card album that allows both the picture on the front and the information on the back to be viewed - as Chugalug2 has described.
It would appear, from reading these descriptions, that this set was published some time in the late 1930s yet before the Second World War began. The clue I have used is that after having been deployed to Egypt one of the units depicted, No 64 Squadron, returned to Martlesham Heath. I know that this occurred in 1936 having researched my late father's involvement with that unit, which flew Demons in the development of fighter tactics to be used in the event that Britain were to be attacked from the Continent of Europe. Someone, somewhere, had foresight!
It would appear, from reading these descriptions, that this set was published some time in the late 1930s yet before the Second World War began. The clue I have used is that after having been deployed to Egypt one of the units depicted, No 64 Squadron, returned to Martlesham Heath. I know that this occurred in 1936 having researched my late father's involvement with that unit, which flew Demons in the development of fighter tactics to be used in the event that Britain were to be attacked from the Continent of Europe. Someone, somewhere, had foresight!
RAF badges came out in 1938. There were two versions, one as illustrated by Ian above, the other had the squadron motto printed on the card. Aircraft of the Royal Air Force also came out in 1938, and there was a very nice set called Aeroplanes (Civil) which was published in 1935. Various other tobacco companies produced cards with an aviation theme, but not surprisingly the Players cards are the most commonly seen. As a general rule, cigarette cards finished in 1939 because of wartime restrictions on the use of paper. With one or two minor exceptions they never reappeared with cigarettes post war, although as thing mentioned, you could get cards with tea and various other products, such as sweets, etc.
I also have a set of Players Squadron Badges like ian16th. I bought mine loose with a job lot box at an auction.
They are mounted in a picture frame with small corner photograph mounts holding them in position.
They are mounted in a picture frame with small corner photograph mounts holding them in position.