...Turf cigarette cards

The brand known as Turf cigarettes was first sold in the 1920’s by Carreras Ltd, a Jamaican company now part of the giant British American Tobacco. 

The cigarette cards for this brand were incorporated into the packet, and had to be carefully cut out by those who wished to collect them, which has clearly not been done with my examples above. There was one card on a packet of ten cigarettes, and two cards on a packet of twenty, and many different series were issued over the years, each of about fifty cards, including Film Stars – Ronald Reagan, for example, was number 27 of that set – Footballers, British Aeroplanes, and the Locomotives above in 1952.

 

I have not been able to establish when the somewhat oddly named brand was discontinued, but it was probably in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Their Craven “A” brand, established in the same period, is still sold today.