Thomson & Porteous 'European War' Series WW I (circa 1915) Cards 1 to 8

Description: Seldom seen, especially in the US, is this set of eight cards, numbered 1 to 8, issued circa 1915 in the United Kingdom by tobacco manufacturer Thomson & Porteous of Edinburgh, Scotland. The series is titled 'The European War', which is how the British referred to it at the time, interchangeably, with 'The Great War (which meant something massive, not something good). It features artwork on the fronts, scenes with themes of duty and missing home. Each has a caption beneath the artwork. Each reverse repeats the caption from the front and is followed by a short poem, sometimes humorous in nature, that follows the theme. One caption touches upon the song 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary', which the war made famous but had only been written a few years before the conflict began. The reverses advertise 'Luntin' brand cigarettes, from 'Thomson & Porteous, Cigarette Manufacturers, Edinburgh'. I am listing it as a set because listing it as a lot doesn't do it justice. It is technically a subset of a larger set of 20 cards. What classifies it as a subset, and a complete one, is that cards 9 thru 20 are printed with reverses that advertise 'Luntin Mixture', with a short description of the three blends of tobacco sold under that name. These cards DO NOT show any reference to the captions that appear on the fronts of these cards. Perhaps the company wanted to rush additional cards to market and didn't have time to have their 'poet' compose additional witticisms, or they didn't want to pay said person to compose any. It's a neat little piece of history and something not often seen this side of the Atlantic. Or on that side of the Atlantic, either. My research turned up only three complete sets (of 20) sold, one by Tooveys (England) from 2013 and two by Loddon (England), from 2022 and 2023. You will see the odd card on eBay occasionally, but the high cost of shipping one card translates into a much higher price than I am asking, should one try to assemble this group card by card. Those odds generally are coming from the UK, with prices quoted in pounds, not US$. Insured Ground Advantage shipping is $6.50 I acquired these cards from a collection from Canada that was being broken up, along with a couple of seldom-seen British full sets and a few singles, all with military themes. I will be listing them in the coming days.

Price: 60 USD

Location: Rochester, New York

End Time: 2024-10-20T22:16:53.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.5 USD