Auction #13 - February 2023
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/26/2023
The American Tobacco Company (ATC) issued a number of sets to be inserted into packages of cigarettes sold overseas--mostly in the UK--in an effort to combat the newly formed British American Tobacco (BAT) company. The "Tobacco War" era as it was called was one of fierce competition for the cigarette tastes of the UK and European market. To that end, both the ATC and BAT created card sets as inserts into their packages for this lucrative market. Most all of these sets were cataloged by Burdick in the T400-T499 range. Many are quite scarce and are most frequently found still in the UK rather than in the United States. In many instances, artwork was used from previous sets from Kinney, Kimball and other 19th century popular series. In other instances, new artwork was commissioned.
The T441 British American Tobacco Series pictures Chinese Girls generally in sets of (25). There are some sets that have variations with plain images and with images that have Chinese characters in the background of the card.
This lot of (28) T441 BAT China Girls are all from the F3 set and include (27) with the plain background and a single one with the ornate background. Cards in the lot are in VG to EX condition, averaging around a clean VGEX. Great lot that represents over 1/2 of the set of (50).
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