Wills 200th Anniversary
Double pack commemorating the 200th anniversary of W.D & H.O. Wills Ltd, 1786 - 1986.

Double pack commemorating the 200th anniversary of W.D & H.O. Wills Ltd, Bristol (1786 - 1986) and presented to all their employees and pensioners. The four aces are reproduced from an early set of ‘stiffeners’ (so called because they stiffened the paper cigarette packs), advertising the company’s leading brands. The rest of the pack features cigarette cards. See the Explanatory Card►




Above: double pack commemorating the 200th anniversary of W.D & H.O. Wills Ltd, 1786 - 1986. Each deck has 52 cards + 2 Jokers plus an insert card that describes the decks, inside a presentation case. One pack has silver borders and backs, the other has gold borders and backs.

By Simon Wintle
Member since February 01, 1996
Founder and editor of the World of Playing Cards since 1996. He is a former committee member of the IPCS and was graphics editor of The Playing-Card journal for many years. He has lived at various times in Chile, England and Wales and is currently living in Extremadura, Spain. Simon's first limited edition pack of playing cards was a replica of a seventeenth century traditional English pack, which he produced from woodblocks and stencils.
Related Articles

Doctor Who Trump Card Game
Game for two players in which Doctor Who and the Legendary Legion join battle with the Alien Hordes....

Baraja de Juan Martín Zamorano
Deck inspired by El Pendón de los Zamorano, a military pennant dating from 1501, published by Priego...

Disney’s Aladdin playing cards
Characters from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin.

2011 Worshipful Company Pack
Celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, with characters adapted from drawings b...

More Menthol Filter Cigarettes
Elongated cards with designs by Wong Yui Man advertising More cigarettes.

Jockey Club de Buenos Aires
Spanish-suited pack by Chas Goodall & Son Ltd for the Jockey Club, Buenos Aires.

New interest in old games
Games once fashionable are now eclipsed by quicker gratifications.

Polygo™
Cards of irregular, four-sided shape for playing word and colour games as well as more traditional o...

Treasures from the Bodleian Library
Rare books, manuscripts, music scores, portraits, maps, gospels, chronicles and other valuable artef...

Carte di Colombo
Fully illustrated pack designed by Pier Canosa commemorating the 500th anniversary of the discovery ...

Seminole Wars deck
Seminole Wars deck by J. Y. Humphreys, Philadelphia, c.1819.

Victorian grocer’s scale plate
Large flat plate decorated with highly coloured English cards and royal arms.

Queen of Arts
A wide variety of women artists celebrated on cards with illustrations by Laura Callaghan.

The Glasgow Pack
Issued to celebrate Glasgow’s reign as European City of Culture in 1990, with city views and works o...

Verkeers Kwartet
A helpful quartet game celebrating the 75th anniversary of road safety exams making traffic safer.

Cathedrals, Abbeys & Minsters playing cards
54 pictures of different famous cathedrals, abbeys and minsters in England and Wales.
Most Popular
Our top articles from the past 28 days