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Re: England

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 9:07 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 11:51 pm
by dazzleguts
Space
A Wills Scheme Bridge Deck
made by Mardon, Son & Hall
c. 1933

Mardon sealed.jpg
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The beginnings of Mardon, Son & hall go back to 1823 with a John Price who started an engraving business. It wasn't until 1846 that a Mardon joined the firm, so 1846 is often the date given for the origin of the company.

When Mardon moved into making cardboard boxes in the late 1800s they were the only company in Bristol making that product and trade was brisk. When W. D. and H. O Wills started making cigarettes in the 1880s they commissioned Mardon to make the cigarette packets. As the cigarette demand grew so did the demand for Mardon's boxes.

Larger cigarette packs required stiffeners, small plain cards the size of the packs, to protect the cigarettes from being crushed. Mardon was asked by Wills to print ads on the stiffeners. The ads were eventually replaced by collectable "educational" images.


Mardon wrapper detail.jpg
Mardon wrapper detail.jpg (142.56 KiB) Viewed 7205 times
Wills and Mardon were already cooperating on the new technology needed to meet the high demands for cigarette packets when an American campaign to enter the British tobacco industry was launched in October of 1901. British tobacco companies joined forces and formed the Imperial Tobacco Group to successfully protect their interests. Mardon was the only firm from outside of the tobacco industry to join the Imperial. It appears the individual companies retained separate names and operations within their alliance as the Imperial. See the above detail from the wrapper of this deck.

sbox_back_ace_joker.jpg
In the early 1930s WD & HO Wills came up with a special promotion - the Wills Scheme. Two miniature playing cards were inserted into each cigarette pack. They were one quarter the size of a standard narrow playing card, but when a full set was collected they could be traded in for regular patience or bridge sized decks as singles, doubles or bezique sets.
sMardon hearts_spades.jpg
Originally the cards were only produced by De La Rue (with the Goodall name and faces) and Waddingtons, but the promotion was so successful that, from 1932 to 1934, Mardon also made playing cards to help meet the demand. Mardon also made advertising decks for various Imperial products such as Players Navy Cut.

The Wills Scheme was so big that they saturated the playing card market and even now decks can be found in good condition, often still sealed, as this one was when I first received it.
Mardon gold edges small.jpg
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Even though Mardon was new to playing cards their long experience as printers shows and this deck is beautifully printed. The backs glow with colour and are highlighted with touches of gold. The card edges are brightly gilt. The cards have a very fine-meshed linen surface, are very flexible, and seem a little thin. The deck came with one joker and a blank card.
Mardon gold details.jpg
Jase (Jock1971) has already posted a Mardon earlier in this thread but I noticed this deck was printed slightly differently. The yellow was printed overtop of the darker colours, rather than underneath, even though as the lightest colour yellow is usually printed first. Since Mardon was an experienced printer I suggest that this was done deliberately to tone down the areas of black or blue that the yellow overlaps, creating another colour as part of the design.[/color]
sMardon diamonds_clubs.jpg
Many thanks to Jase for his help with this posting. :)

Re: England

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 4:24 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:39 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 6:44 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 1:29 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 1:24 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 1:37 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 4:11 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 3:06 pm
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:39 pm
by dazzleguts
Love that you posted Lewis's deck right after the Bancks Brothers decks. Both for contrast and similarity. Lewis is casual and playful, unlike the constraints of traditional imagery and woodcut methods in the Bancks, but they both have the direct/visceral feel of the hand made.

Re: England

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 6:30 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 4:29 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:10 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:30 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:38 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:40 am
by Jock1971
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Re: England

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:24 pm
by joeblow
I'm constantly amazed by the variety of cards I see in these threads. Thanks for all your posts Jase.