08 December 2017

De Reszke Cigarettes

We continue our Saturday posts on British film postcard series with De Reszke postcards. De Reske was a, now forgotten, British cigarette brand. It was named after Jean de Reszke (1850-1925), a famous Polish opera star of the late 19th century, and advertised as 'the Aristocrat of Cigarettes'. Ads suggested the cigarettes were 'mild and harmless' so that they would not damage De Reszke's voice. The brand was originally produced by J. Millhoff, a Russian living in London. In 1927, Millhoff sold out to Godrey Phillips, an international company which was a fellow competitor.  In the early 1930s, Godfrey Phillips Associated brands published this series of hand-coloured film star postcards. The postcards appeared in larger packings of De Reszke Cigarettes and other brands of Godfrey Phillips. Smaller pictures of film stars appeared in the other packings.

Diana Wynyard
Diana Wynyard. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 3.

Jessie Matthews
Jessie Matthews. British collectors card by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 9. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Heather Angel
Heather Angel. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 12. Photo: possibly a publicity still for The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1931).

Gordon Harker
Gordon Harker. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 14. Photo: Gaumont.

Evelyn Laye
Evelyn Laye. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 21. Photo: Gaumont-British.

George Arliss
George Arliss. British postcard with Polish imprint by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 22. Photo: publicity still for The House of Rothschild (Alfred L. Werker, 1934).

Jack Hulbert
Jack Hulbert. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 30. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Madeleine Carroll
Madeleine Carroll. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 32. Photo: Gaumont-British. Publicity still for The Dictator/Loves of a Dictator (Victor Saville, 1935).

Conrad Veidt in Jew Süss (1934)
Conrad Veidt. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 33. Photo: Gaumont-British. Publicity still for Jew Süss (Lothar Mendes, 1934).

Nova Pilbeam
Nova Pilbeam. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 39. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 44. Photo: London Films. Publicity still for The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1934).

Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor. British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 45.

Sources: Godfrey Dykes.

It is Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Just wanted to say THANX for posting this article -- very informative!

Unknown said...

Oops — I didn't intend to publish my Comment anonymously. For information-purposes:

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