I was pretty excited to find these! It’s a set of ten cards that I acquired along with the original envelope that they were sold in–thankfully, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to ID these at all! The envelope is labeled “Set No. 1″, so there may be more!
What’s so special about these? Well, they look like bigger versions of the Kromo Gravure cards, which I’ve bought dozens of sets of in the past four-five years. However the Kromos were all issued as 50 card sets, each card measuring appx. 2-1/8″ X 3-7/16″, while these Theatrical Adv. Co. cards came as a set of 10 and measure 3″ X 5-1/8″.
Another similarity is the photos that were used–I’ve seen 7 of the 10 poses from the Theatrical Advertising set used before in the various Kromo sets. Only the Mary Pickford and Mrs. Vernon Castle cards had unique poses, plus the card of childstar Zoe Rae, who I’ve never before seen included in any card set, Kromo or otherwise.
Like I said, I was pretty happy to pick these up, you never know what you’re going to find out there–who’d've thought that after 4-5 years of buying Kromo set after Kromo set, something else new would still be able to turn up!
Here’s the link to the brand new 1917 Theatrical Advertising Co. Cards Photo ID Guide. The individual cards, by the way, go up for sale on eBay tonight.
1926 Gallaher “Cinema Stars” Tobacco Cards issued by Gallaher Ltd. out of Belfast & London. 100 card set. Measures 1-1/2″ x 2-1/2″.
1948 Dinkie Grips card from Series 3 covering MGM films. Full cards with unpunctured “grips” area at bottom measure approximately 2-1/8″ X 4-1/4″. Issued out of Birmingham, England by Dinkie Products with ad on back for Dinkie Grips as well as other Dinkie Products (Dinkie Curlers and Wavesetters).
1939 Gallaher “My Favourite Part” Tobacco Cards issued out of London, measuring approximately 1-1/2″ X 2-1/2″.
