The scheme to promote playing cards as gifts by means of inserts in Wills' cigarette packets apparently saved Waddington from their financial problems in 1931. Here are some details of the cards involved.
The Jack of Spades (The English Court: part 12) • Hoover Company pack • Goodall: Victor E. Mauger: International Card Company • A Collecting Theme: Birds Part 1 • Non-standard arrangement of suitmarks on pip cards • The Game of Heartsett • Owen Jones - Onoto - Pass and Joyce Ltd • Mardon Son & Hall
A Collecting Theme: Birds part 2 • Beautiful Britain (additional information) • Clan Tartan cards • Mardon Son & Hall • The Daily Sketch War Fund pack • Overprint Champagne Advertising packs • Musical Card Games • Children's Card Games: Pepys Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs • Hobby Horse playing cards
Heber Mardon was born in 1840. With his father he founded the firm of Mardon and Son which, in 1863, became Mardon, Son & Hall.
A division of Imperial Tobacco, they appear to have made cards almost exclusively for the cigarette token market, which flourished during the 1930s.
Wills’s “Happy Families” cards were issued by the Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland) Limited in around 1930.