Mardon Son & Hall of Bristol, branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company

Mardon Son & Hall of Bristol (the printers and packers) were acquired by the Imperial Tobacco Company and became responsible for the production of most of their cigarette cards. During the early 1930s they also became involved in the manufacture of playing cards - both patience and standard sizes - for the 'Wills Scheme' involving miniature playing cards found inside certain brands of cigarettes for which high quality, gilt-edged, full-sized boxed sets were exchanged. These packs often had attractive pictorial back designs. Some advertising packs can also be found, e.g. Players Navy Cut cigarettes.

		Left: miniature playing cards manufactured by Mardon Son & Hall for W.D. & H.O. Wills, 1932-4. When complete, these miniature packs could be exchanged for full-sized packs. The cards shown at the top of this page are illustrations from the book "Popular Card Games" by Lawrence H. Dawson, published by W.D. & H.O. Wills, printed by Mardon, Son and Hall, Bristol, 1933.
		Left: miniature playing cards manufactured by Mardon Son & Hall for the Jersey Tobacco Co. Ltd, 1933. Below: full-sized standard pack.

A history of Mardon's can be found here. Photos of the works can be seen here. The photo shown below can be seen here where the caption reads: "A division of Imperial Tobacco, they appear to have made cards almost exclusively for the cigarette token market, which flourished during the 1930s. Some advertising packs can also be found, e.g. Players Navy Cut cigarettes. A reciprocal arrangement may have existed with Waddingtons regarding playing card production during the early 1930s."

The Navy Cut cigarettes pack is shown below, with a rare special ace of spades.