Cigarette Card Information

Modern and Reproduction

Cartophily is the hobby of collecting cigarette cards and its origins go back to the 1880's. They started off life as blank cards which were inserted as strengtheners into paper packets of cigarettes in the mid to late nineteenth century. They evolved into advertising cards bearing product details, a device first employed by Allen & Ginter in the United States in 1886. The first British cigarette manufacturer to follow was W.D. & H.O. Wills in 1888.

A couple of years later, some cigarette cards were produced bearing pictures instead of purely advertising details. The first such cards produced had blank backs, but later the rears bore information associated with the picture.

Cards were organised in sets (usually of 50) on a common topic and were designed to be collected as a set, a marketing gimmick to encourage people to buy more cigarettes.