A Quaint Collectable

Isn’t it funny that a ‘filthy habit’ – an oft-used term in literature describing cigarette smoking – should be the means that brought us such a quaint and delightful illustrated product as the cigarette card? But we would not have one without the other.

In the mid 1880s America, cigarette packaging was made from flimsy paper, and so cards known as stiffeners were inserted for the reinforcement necessary to protect the precious contents. Some believe it was a journalist who first had the brilliant idea to use these blank cards for advertising, and WD & HO Wills were soon taking advantage. Eventually the cards were also used to convey information on items of general interest: but not until 1893, with the UK’s John Player & Sons producing one of the first sets, on ‘Castles and Abbeys’.

John Players & Sons

Allen & GintersMany of these cards were printed using chromolithography: each colour was applied singly with the use of stone plates. In fine (art) printing it was not unusual for 20–25 stones to be used on a single image, but cigarette cards would not have qualified for that attention. In fact it is the very crudeness and tiny colour palette which gives them the quaint look that I love. I just need to find a way to emulate it in Photoshop, an enjoyable irony.

Dukes, late 19th century