Roldan Tobacco Cards, Peru
Tobacco cards with miniature playing cards inset into top corners, printed by Litografía y Tipografía Fabbri Hermanos, for Roldan y Cia Tobacco, Lima, c.1895.
ROLDAN & CIA tobacco insert cards, PERU c.1895
Assorted collectable cigarette cards with amorous illustrations and miniature Spanish-suited playing cards inset into top corners printed by Litografía y Tipografía Fabbri Hermanos, for Roldan y Cia Tobacco, Lima, c.1895


Above; Tobacco cards with miniature playing cards inset into top corners, printed by Litografía y Tipografía Fabbri Hermanos, for Roldan y Cia Tobacco, Lima, c.1895. If the cards were arranged in order, there would be a continuing narrative. The backs have a repeating pattern, printed in different directions in different print runs. The miniature playing cards appear to be of the Cádiz style. Size: 3.5 x 5.5 cm. Thanks to Daen Huse for extra research.

Above: collectible cigarette card published by Fábrica de Cigarillos Roldan & Co. inserted into packets of “El Perú” cigarettes. Image courtesy Anke Schröder.
See also: Cigarrillos Compadre Cigarrillos "El Perú" Litografía Fabbri

By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
View ArticlesCurator and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.