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If I was smoking in Feb 1925 then it would have been Wills brands for me. Players were persisting in the considerable undertaking of Army Corps & Divisional Signs 1914-1918 2nd series (51-150) indeed this was a second series and some are less interesting you will have noticed the stakes have been increased as now there 100 to collect in this set.
There is something hypnotic about the endless procession of cards the two series make with 150 basically geometric designs.
I can imagine Doctor Who (Tom Baker's wild eyes would be best for this scene) being hypnotized by an evil lizard beast as he flicked through a pack of these endlessly, the scenery wobbling dangerously all about.
Stoic determination to complete a job first started in March 1924 was needed by the smoking populace.
This is not my type of card but that does not mean it is not to everyone's dislike. Players obviously found it a useful exercise and it would not be the same if the card world did not have such a series of cards tucked away.
PLAYERS, Army Corps
& Divisional Signs
1914-1918 2nd series
Be that as it may, there was a choice and I would have been collecting Wills, Flower Culture in Pots which was issued in the same month.
Things flowery were rather left to Wills. Early on Players had made a partial concession with Useful Plants and Fruits [1902] but that was about it when it came to things which needed sunlight to grow.
Wills had a grand tradition of things flowery. In 1910 / 1913 , they had produced Old English Garden Flowers which ran into 100 cards over two series. In 1912-1913 they had produced two 50 card series on Roses and in 1926 did another 90 cards on the subject.
...Certainly the idea of presenting ties on cigarette cards could have created a mighty dull set.
The year before this issue they had produced, Flowering Trees and Shrubs and in the 1930's Wills really got into a gardening furrow.
Pot luck
Flower Culture in Pots was dramatic in the presentation. A black background card works really well in this instance.
In other experiments with black background I am not so sure, certainly the Godfrey Phillips, British Butterflies [1927] does not quite come off as a black background, although this also has something to do with the slightly 'lazy' printing which gives the whole illustration a lower quality feel about it.
WILLS, FLOWER
CULTURE IN POTS
CULTURE IN POTS
If you were not smoking these brands there was a variety of subjects available to be collected. Smokers of John Brumfit brands would have been amazed to see cards in the cigarette packets for the first time since the retailer had been established in 1864.