This type of collectible cards are known as cigarette or tobacco cards because at the turn of the century, they were offered by cigarette companies as a type of Cracker Jack prize.
These cards feature 40 portraits of a variety of famous people by the painter Alexander ('Alick') Penrose Forbes Ritchie, who was commissioned to create the works for John Player & Sons Cigarette Company in 1926. The front of each card features the subject in a straight line caricature-style color relief halftone, measuring 2 5/8 in. x 1 1/4 in. The obverse features a description of the subject’s life or accomplishments of note. Two of the 40 cards have visible condition notes (as pictured).
Another surviving set of these cards are part of the permanent collection at The National Portrait Gallery in London, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/set/627/Cigarette+cards+issued+by+John+Player+%26+Sons and the images from these iconic pieces have become quite popular as reproduced prints. Here’s your chance to own the originals.
