Wills Actresses (Four Colors Surround)

Issuing Company: W.D. and H.O. Wills
Country of Issue:
Year of Issue: 1900s
Color/B&W: B&W photo, colored frame
Number of Cards in Set: 50
Card Size: 1 9/16" x 2 7/16"
Issued as insert with what product: Cigarettes

Notes: Unnumbered. These cards were issued in three different ways:

This set does not contain a title on the cards, the general title Actresses is used, with Four Colors Surround also added because the fronts surrounding the picture on all cards in all printings can be found in four color shades - green, brown-buff, grey, or pink-mauve. There are also a lot of color shade variations, putting many cards in between the various color shades.

The set was issued somewhere in the 1903-1908 time period. Since this was the time when movies were just getting started, these were stage actresses with some of them also acting in movies.

In the Wills Issues book, these are listed as W117. In the latest World Tobacco Issues Index, these are listed as W675-475.

The cards of Alice Hatton and Grace Warner can be found with the names transposed in the B printing of this set.

These were an export issue by Wills, somewhere in the East. Country or countries of issue not known to me at the moment.

Thanks to Richard Minns for help with this checklist.

Janet Alexander
Sybil Arundale
Lena Ashwell
Dorothea Baird
Miss Berkley
Empsie Bowman
Tita Brand
Sybil Carlisle
Amy Colleridge
Marie Dainton
Gertrude Elliott (hair up)
Gertrude Elliott (long hair)
Maxime Elliott
Beryl Faber
Lettice Fairfax
Maude Fealy
Vane Featherstone
Beatrice Ferrar
Isabel M. Field-Collier
Agnes Fraser
Evie Greene
Lily Hanbury
Alice Hatton
Dora Hole
Isabel Jay
Millie Legarde
Alice Liebman
Violet Lindon
Mabel Love
Lillah McCarthy
Miss McComas
Evelyn Millard
Lucy Milner
Miss Molyneux
Eva Moore
Thirza Norman
Ettie Pedgrift
Alice Powell
Susie Raymonde
Eleanor Robson
Katie Rorke
Agatha Roze
Miss St. Cyr
Miss Saqui
Daisy Thimm
Keith Wakeman
Grace Warner
Ethel Warwick
Lilian Wheeler
Flossie Wilkinson

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