Hamlet Cigars
Advertising deck for “Hamlet mild cigars”, a Benson & Hedges product.
This advertising deck for “Hamlet” cigars, a Benson & Hedges product, was made by Carta Mundi c.1989. Hamlet slim panatella cigars were first launched in the United Kingdom in 1964, and were frequently described as "the mild cigar" in their advertising campaigns.
The pack features frames of motion picture film on each of the Aces, Jokers and court cards, though their relationship with the product is unclear. It is possible that the frames of film have reference to an actual motion picture or pictures, but some of the frames seem to depict early British royalty, a Rubix cube, a graph, and the cigars themselves. The pip cards have the word “HAMLET” in bold along each side. There are 4 identical Jokers, and the box reflects the original Hamlet packaging
Above: advertising deck for “Hamlet” cigars, a Benson & Hedges product, made by Carta Mundi c.1989.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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