My memories of my grandfather are of a man who smoked, who played chess with my father every Sunday afternoon, who drove with a large teddy bear in the back seat of the car, he gardened a lot in particular I associate him with rows of red and yellow tulips and he collected cigarette cards. He was passionate about his collection and had many beautiful and rare sets that were worth quite a bit of money.
Some years after his death my grandmother was burgled and most of his collection was stolen. Not much else was taken, my grandparents did not own anything else really of value and it was fairly clear that the burglar knew what s/he was after. It was sad, but they were gone. Life moved on.
Some years later my grandmother gave my son a small album of cigarette cards. It did not contain any full sets, but dribs and drabs of various unfinished collections. It was though a small connection back to my grandfather. I spent quite a bit of time looking through it. Cigarette cards are a thing long gone now. I suppose they would be much frowned upon as encouraging people to smoke, but they were part of a shopping culture that no longer seems to exist. I remember you could collect cards found in tea packets too. Collecting and saving and sending in for free gifts was a real part of my childhood.
I realised that one of the sets of cards was nearly complete. Only two cards were missing. I went straight to the internet, not knowing if I could find the missing ones or any idea of how much they might cost. I was curious though, could I complete the set?
Yes, I could, I think the cards cost 50p each as most collections are not really worth much at all and this is a fairly common one that is easily available. I bought the missing two and then took it into a local framers to be framed. It is now pride of place in my lounge and I look at it and think of my grandfather..............smoking his way through collecting them......... oh dear, see it is beautiful, but it is problematic.
