Country of Issue: England
Year of Issue: 1913
Color/B&W: Color
Number of Cards in Set: 50
Card Size:
Issued as insert with what product: Cigarettes
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Issuing Company: R. J. Lea, Ltd. Country of Issue: England Year of Issue: 1913 Color/B&W: Color Number of Cards in Set: 50 Card Size: Issued as insert with what product: Cigarettes |
Notes: Richard Minns reports that there are four extremely rare cards in this set (1, 8, 12, 32) with an unusual reason for their rarity.
When printed, the company of Lea (based in Stockport) stored the cards in large boxes with four numbers per box, thus all cards of numbers 1, 8, 12, 32 were stored in one box together. A small fire overnight from one of the machines virtually destroyed the contents of this box before it was put out. Most of the contents of the box were unsalvageable apart from a few cards at the bottom of the box.
Lea decided to insert the cards into packets of cigarettes without re-printing the 4 rare cards (possibly the plates were destroyed or more likely it would have been too expensive to re-print these cards.) Thus 4 cards are extremely rare. A few examples of these numbers do exist (presumably a few cards at the bottom of the box survived and a few sample sets for the archives or firm directors had already been printed.)
The non-rare cards usually sell for a few dollars each, while the rare numbers sell for hundreds of dollars at auction.
Thanks to Richard Minns for providing the information for this checklist.
1. Marie Studholme as Joy Blossom in ‘My Darling’ (Rare card)
2. Phyllis Monkman in ‘Sinbad the Sailor’
3. H.B. Irving as Dubosc in ‘The Lyons Mail’
4. Isabel Jay
5. Marie Lohr
6. Lewis Waller as D’Artagnan in ‘Three Muskateers’
7. Ellaline Terriss as The Hon. Betty Silverthorne in ‘The Beauty of Bath’
8. Sari Petrass in ‘Gipsy Love’ (Rare card)
9. Fred Terry as Sir Percy Blakeney in ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’
10. Lily Hanbury
11. Emmy Wehlen
12. Charles Hawtrey as Mr Flat in ‘Money’ (Rare card)
13. Mrs. Langtry
14. Gertie Millar as Mary Gibbs in ‘Our Miss Gibbs’
15. Henry Ainley as Malvolio in ‘Twelfth Night’
16. Mabel Love
17. Gabrielle Ray
18. Laurence Irving as Takeramo in ‘Typhoon’
19. Anna Pavlova
20. Lily Brayton as Helena in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
21. Florence Smithson in ‘Tom Jones’
22. Dorothy Minto
23. Julia Neilson as The Queen of Carpathia in ‘The Popinjay’
24. Lily Elsie
25. Maie Ash
26. Pauline Chase
27. Lydia Kyasht
28. Ellen Terry as Portia in ‘Merchant of Venice’
29. Ruth Vincent in ‘The Persian Princess’
30. Hayden Coffin in ‘Merry Monarch’
31. Martin Harvey as Sidney Carton in ‘The Only Way’
32. Hilda Jacobsen (Rare card)
33. Iris Hoey
34. Gaby Deslys
35. Charles Bibby as Dogberry in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’
36. Adeline Genee
37. Marie Tempest
38. Hilda Trevelyan
39. Oscar Asche in ‘Kismet’
40. Maxine Elliott as Zuleika in ‘Joseph and his Brethren’
41. George Alexander
42. Winifred Emery
43. Matheson Lang as ‘Hamlet’
44. Phyllis Neilson – Terry
45. Milton Rosmer
46. Phyllis Dare
47. Sir J. Forbes Robertson in ‘The Passing of the Third Floor Back’
48. Martha Hedman
49. F. R. Benson as ‘Richard the III’
50. Gladys Cooper
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