1898
The Actresses (B) series of Morris’s Cigarettes from 1898 is a collection of cigarette cards that celebrates some of the brightest stars of the stage and screen of the Victorian era. The cards were produced by B. Morris & Sons, a cigarette factory founded in 1849 in London, that specialized in making high-quality cigarettes and collectibles. The Actresses (B) series features 30 different actresses, each with her name printed on the front, in elegant black and white portraits. The cards have a blank and textless back, and measure about 6.8 x 4 cm. The actresses depicted in the series were photographed by the famous Alexander Bassano, one of the most important portrait photographers of his time, who had a studio in Old Bond Street, in the heart of London. Bassano was known for photographing Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, King Edward VII and many other members of the royal family, as well as political, military, artistic and literary personalities. Bassano was also a pioneer of artistic photography, and devoted himself to creating suggestive and refined images, that enhanced the beauty and elegance of his models. Among the actresses immortalized by Bassano in the Actresses (B) series there are well-known names of the English theatre and cinema, such as Jessie Bateman, Evie Greene, Marion Hood, Dora Barton, Nina Sevening and many others. These women were famous for their talent, their charm and their personality, and they performed in various genres, from comedy to drama, from musical to melodrama, from vaudeville to silent cinema. Some of them were also singers, dancers, writers and activists, and distinguished themselves for their social and humanitarian commitment. Their lives and their works are still a source of inspiration and admiration today. The cigarette cards of the Actresses (B) series are therefore a valuable historical and artistic document, that allows us to know better the women who made the history of entertainment in the Victorian era. The cards are also works of art in themselves, that show us the mastery and sensitivity of Alexander Bassano, one of the greatest photographers of all time.
1934
The series of cards “HOW FILMS ARE MADE” is a collection of 25 illustrated cards that show the various aspects of film production in the 1930s. The cards were produced in 1934 by B. Morris and Sons, a cigarette factory in London, with the collaboration of Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, one of the main British film companies of the time. The cards had the purpose of retaining the customer, but in this case also of promoting the G.-B. films and its new studio in Shepherd’s Bush, which had been renovated and modernized in 1932 to adapt to the needs of sound cinema. The cards showed with color drawings and explanatory texts the different stages and departments involved in making a film, from scriptwriting to editing, passing through makeup, wardrobe, set design, photography, sound and special effects. The cards mentioned six G.-B. films, shot between 1932 and 1933, as examples of how films were made: Rome Express, The Good Companions, I Was a Spy, Channel Crossing, Turkey Time and Friday the Thirteenth. The series was an opportunity for the G.-B. to show the British public its cutting-edge studio and its artistic quality, and to compete with other film companies, especially those American. The series was also a way to reflect the public’s interest in cinema, which had become the main mass entertainment instead of music hall. The series of cards HOW FILMS ARE MADE is a valuable historical document that allows us to better know the world of cinema in the 1930s and its technological and cultural evolution.