Ogdens Beauties & Military cigarette cards
Cigarette cards featuring beauties and military uniforms with playing-card insets.
For a collector of cigarette cards, this is one of the rarest sets in existence. It features an odd mixture of military uniforms (20 cards) and beauties (32 cards). For a playing-card collector, the interest lies in the miniature playing-card inset included top right on every card, particularly the Ace of Spades which is clearly modelled on a Goodall ace. Ogdens did issue other sets of cigarette cards with playing-card insets but this set is the earliest (1898). The back naturally features an advertisement for Ogdens, tobacco manufacturers of Liverpool, England.
Above: Ogdens Beauties & Military cigarette cards published by Ogdens Ltd (Tobacco Manufacturers), Liverpool, UK, 1898. 52 cards. Size: 38 x 69 mm (sizes may vary slightly).
By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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